“The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath of the everlasting arms and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, destroy them.”
In his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 W. Phillip Keller wrote: “When I turn to (God) and expose the problem to Him, allowing Him to see that I have a dilemma, a difficulty, a disagreeable experience beyond my control, He comes to assist. Often a helpful approach is simply to say aloud,‘O Master, this is beyond me – I can’t cope with it – it’s bugging me – I can’t rest – please take over.'” Of course, Keller followed this with: “Then He does take over in His own wondrous way….” When I read that, I thought of a verse that I have probably quoted several times on CouchPotatoRedux pages – Deuteronomy 33:27. Our God is the “go to” God. In fact, He longs for us to come to Him, to let Him help us in the problems of our lives, but too many times, we want to do it ourselves. When we go through health problems, God wants to go through them with us. I know that what we want God to do is to heal us, but He doesn’t always do that. I know that God heals because I have seen it happen many times in my years in the ministry. But sometimes He wants to teach us while we are ill. I know that when I went through cancer in 2010-2012, I initially asked God to heal me. He did not heal my body until I had gone through the treatments, but I found every day as I went through the ordeal, that it is true that “underneath are the everlasting arms.” I learned more about God and myself during that time than I would have if I had been healthy all of that time. Do I want cancer again? Of course not, but I know that if I do get it again the everlasting arms of God will be there to catch me. God answered my prayer through doctors, and He did a work on my heart while He was healing me. When we go through family problems, God wants to go through them with us. Every family goes through some kind of problem at some time or other. Many families today live in crisis most of the time. If you are encountering problems with a child, teenager, or even a parent, you need to remember that “underneath are the everlasting arms.” It is always God’s will that all families be happy families. I know that all families are not happy families, but that is not God’s fault. We need God’s wisdom to raise children in these hedonistic times. Things happen in families that literally try people’s souls. Those who “take it to Jesus,” are more apt to solve the problem than those who do not. The only reason the help of Jesus would not work is because the people do not work His plan but try it their own way anyway. Take your family to the Lord. You will find that He will go through the problem with you and show you a way regardless of how it all turns out. Trust the Lord to do a work in your life. This would be true of your personal problems as well. I can’t promise you that things will turn out like you want them to, but they will turn out good and you will be a better person for it. When we go through church problems, God wants to go through them with us. I pastored seven churches that were filled with good people, but good people can go off in a bad direction sometimes. When ego and self-will rule in a church, and when people choose sides, bad things happen even in Christ’s church. Churches are made up mostly of saved individuals, but saved individuals are human beings. If your church is encountering seemingly impossible problems, take those problems to the Lord. He is the answer for those problems and will show you a way, even if it means changing your church. It is as true now as it was when Deuteronomy 33:27 was written: “Underneath are the everlasting arms…” And they will catch you. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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