Encouragements for our troubled times No. 24
COVID-19 Series | Date: 03 September 2020
The Elders and Deacons want to encourage the members and those who regularly meet with us through this weekly letter. If you have news which you would be happy to share with the fellowship or request for prayer, then please let us know.
A message from our Pastor
Psalm 91:11-13
"For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot."
When we are considering the meaning of these verses, we would do well to remember the Lord’s reply to Satan, when He was fasting in the wilderness and Satan challenged Him to prove He was the Son of God by throwing Himself down from the top of the Temple, whilst presuming upon God’s promises in these verses, to keep Him safe; “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord you God.’ “ God is not promising that He will never let us stub our toe against a rock; but, that He keeps us safe as we walk through this fallen world with all its dangers. Even though there may be lions and cobras all around us, we need not fear for we are in His keeping.
Testing God by putting ourselves in the way of danger, is presumption and a sin. We are trying Him and challenging Him to keep His word, and expecting Him to keep His promises, even though we have, in this case, put ourselves in danger unnecessarily. We must trust God with all our heart but we must never be presumptuous. If we had a kind and wealthy benefactor who promised to help us financially whenever we needed him, and we went and ran up a huge shopping bill thinking he would pay it off for us, we would be presuming upon his kindness. Our benefactor would have every right to refuse to help us and would not be in breach of his promise. We, on the other hand, would have shown ourselves to be ungrateful and untrustworthy by seeking to use his promise to our greedy, selfish and foolish ends.
But, in connection to this promise, there is another way in which we can wrong our God. We can doubt His gracious promise to us and act as if we do not believe Him. This is equally wrong and sinful because we are accusing Him of not being true to His promises, or, of being weak and not being able to keep His promises. Either way, it is a gross insult to the Almighty and Faithful God and our Loving, caring Heavenly Father. God’s promises are yea and amen. He does not make a promise that He does not intend to keep, or that He does not have the power to keep, and we should not doubt Him. If our wealthy benefactor had sincerely made a promise to us, to help us in our hour of need, and we, from no fault of our own, fell upon hard times; but we would not seek his help because we doubted his sincerity or ability to help, what an insult that would be to him.
No, we can put our trust in our God and loving Heavenly Father, knowing that “He is faithful, and also will do it.” He has given His angels charge over us, and they fly at His command to our relief. In His mighty hands, He will bear us up and will not allow anything to come upon us that is not according to His sovereign will for us. We can go confidently into this fallen and dangerous world knowing that our God is with us “then who can be against us?”