Thursday, December 13, 2007

Remember and live

December 13, 2007

Ps 56:4 - In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?

This verse reminds me of the words of Jesus when he says, “Lk 12:4 - “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.” The most important thing about life is where you go after you die. If flesh can not affect that, than according to Jesus and David in this Psalm, there is nothing flesh can do to me. If God is our trust, our fears of man will be engulfed in our fear and trust in God. But, it is His word that gives us this confidence, in that it is the anchor for our confidence, it is the assurance for our peace. We need to allow the Word of God to give us the peace of God.

Jos 4:20-24 - And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”

There is so much truth in this story about the importance of remembering. The stones were placed so that they people would remember how powerful is the hand of God, and as a result they would fear the Lord. The Words of God are like these stones. The more we remember, the more we spend time learning and listening and exacting change due to the word in our lives, the less we have to fear. If these stones remind the Israelites of the power of God, it changes how they deal with situations in the future. Likewise, if we praise the Word and remember it is in situations, it will change how we deal with fear. We will not need to be afraid.