YOU ARE FOR ME

On August 14, I wrote a blog entitled "Your Beloved". I referenced a scripture -- Psalm 124:1&2. The last Wednesday in August I began a new Bible Study with Beth Moore called "Stepping Up". This past week my study was on Psalm 124. I have gained so much more insight this week and I would like to share it with you. I'm going to write it for you from THE MESSAGE translation:

A pilgrim song of David. If God hadn't been for us --- all together now, Israel, sing out! ----- If God hadn't been for us when everyone went against us, we would have been swallowed alive by their violent anger, swept away by the flood of rage, drowned in the torrent; we would have lost our lives in the wild, raging water. Oh blessed be God! He didn't go off and leave us. He didn't abandon us defenseless, helpless as a rabbit in a pack of snarling dogs. We've flown free from their fangs, free of their traps, free as a bird. Their grip is broken; we're free as a bird in flight. God's strong name is our help, the same God who made heaven and earth.

Have you ever been there? You know, that place where you are surrounded by defeat. You cannot breathe -- everyone and everything is against you. You can actually see yourself drowning in a raging river that is full of snakes and rocks and things you cannot see but you know they are there and they are going to just swallow you up? Dramatic? Maybe. But you know you have been there. I have.

I have to quote Beth Moore:

...future ramifications were worth the present misunderstanding.

...He knows when something glorious in the future necessitates something difficult in the present. Because He knows the glory will be worth it, God will risk being misunderstood. Yes, God wants us to have joyful, satisfying lives, but He also wants us to have crowns to cast. Rewards to receive. Character to develop. Compassion to give. Testimonies to tell. In the midst of those painful processes, God makes bold promises.

Beth then instructed us to read Romans 8:28-39. I want you to do this. Read it out loud and then, just as she instructed us, make some proclamations:

God WILL justify me.
God WILL glorify me.
God WILL always be FOR me.
God WILL never be AGAINST me.
God WILL freely give to me.
NOTHING can separate me from HIS love.

My Lord, I come to You in the name of Jesus. You truly are the maker of heaven and earth. I know You have been with me in my deepest despair. Had you not been there I would have died in my pain. You delivered me from those raging waters that wanted to swallow up and take my life and my very soul. Your mighty name IS my help. I thank You, Lord, for never leaving me and never being against me. YOU ARE FOR ME. Amen