Tag: god sees

Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Faith (Psalm 11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

I have taken refuge in the Lord.
    So how can you say to me,
    “Flee to the hills like a bird
        because the wicked
        have already bent their bows;
        they’ve already strung their arrows;
        they are ready to secretly shoot
        those whose heart is right”?
When the very bottom of things falls out,
    what can a righteous person possibly accomplish?

But the Lord is in his holy temple.
    The Lord! His throne is in heaven.
His eyes see—
    his vision examines all of humanity.
The Lord examines
    both the righteous and the wicked;
    his very being hates anyone who loves violence.
God will rain fiery coals and sulfur on the wicked;
    their cups will be filled
    with nothing but a scorching hot wind
    because the Lord is righteous!
    He loves righteous deeds.
    Those whose heart is right will see God’s face. (Common English Bible)

We all know what it feels like to take the brunt of someone’s poison verbal darts. It’s scary and stressful. What do you do? In a state of fear, shock, or panic, we will likely either fight, flight, freeze, or faith.

Fight

If you have ever received a nasty email based on half-truths and accusations; stood dumbfounded as someone hurled misinformation and criticism at you; and/or experienced the victimization that comes from slanderous and gossiping tongues, then the psalmist knows exactly how you feel. 

Cobbling together a hasty email response, full of anger and vitriol, only sucks us into the person’s evil ways. Metaphorically punching someone in the face for their slap to your face is how the demonic realm handles offenses. Fighting back with an equal or greater force is diametrically opposed to the way of Jesus in loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us.

Flight

Then, there is the response of taking flight from the nastiness. Indeed, it sometimes seems as if good people are always getting swallowed whole by unjust words and behaviors directed squarely at them. 

And it doesn’t help when the downers among us stroll along and give us their unhelpful fatalism about how there is nothing we can do and how nothing will ever change.

Freeze

Some folks are just plain dumbfounded that another person can be so mean or controlling, so they freeze, unable to speak or do anything. They end up suffering in silence, without their victimization having a voice.

Faith

To be the target of evil speech or malevolent actions is, at the least, unsettling, and, at worst, can bring years of struggle, depression, and inability to serve. Yet, there is someone who sees it all, and that someone will address the wrong. 

We have an option beyond fighting back in anger, fleeing altogether in fear, or freezing in our tracks. We can trust God. We can have faith.

God Sees

The Lord sits aloft, overseeing all, and knows everything humanity does and says. God always does right and wants justice done. Everyone who shares a divine sense of what is right and just will see God’s face. God will act because the Lord abhors and despises those who are cruel and enjoy violence.

It’s not a good idea to get on God’s bad side. The way to flare God’s anger is by possessing an acerbic tongue; relishing in verbal violence; and, having no remorse about any of it. Because God loves people, God hates evil. 

The righteous can take solace in the truth that God really does see the harm done and is in a position to do something about it. Like the psalmist, we seek the Lord. The Lord fights our battles.

Not Okay

Whenever we are harassed and the ungodly give us a hard time, the psalmist isn’t offering some nice religious platitudes such as, “Just let go and let God,” “Everything works for the good of those who love God,” or “It’s okay, you’ll be in heaven someday.”

In another context, maybe those statements are helpful. But being in the teeth of the wicked, all is not okay. As much as some folks try to sanitize an evil situation with rainbows and butterflies, the evil is real, and it’s there.

The truth is that everything is not okay. And it’s okay to not feel okay. The earth is filled with violence, malevolence, oppression, injustice, and systemic evil. The psalmist knows this, all too well.

Humble yourselves under God’s power so that he may raise you up in the last day. Throw all your anxiety onto him because he cares about you.

1 Peter 5:6-7, CEB

God Acts

Today’s psalm is reminding and reassuring us that the Lord is aware of what’s going on and will most certainly do something about it. God will act to punish the wicked and deliver the Lord’s people.

There may not be peace this present moment, yet it will not always be this way. We shall behold the face of the Lord.

The Lord is a righteous judge. Justice is the foundation of God’s throne. God sees the entire spectrum of humanity and can make a right assessment of people’s thoughts, intents, words, and actions.

We, however, cannot. Therefore, it is most necessary for us to put our trust in a Divine Being who cares about right and wrong and has the power to act with justice.

Whenever we are hemmed-in through the schemes of diabolical persons and are powerless, there is always the choice to trust in the Lord. The outcome of every life on earth rests in the hands of God. And it will be a just and right rendering.

Trust in the Lord and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. We might struggle mightily on both the inside and outside – our hard circumstance might not change immediately – yet God is the One who will vindicate the just person when the time is right.

You are not alone. The Lord is with you always.

God of justice, look at the state of your servant and act on my behalf. Do not let evil prevail. Thwart the ungodly so that they can no longer do any harm. Amen.

Seen by God (Genesis 16:7-15)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

The angel of the Lord also said to her:

“You are now pregnant
    and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
    for the Lord has heard of your misery.
He will be a wild donkey of a man;
    his hand will be against everyone
    and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
    toward all his brothers.”

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. (New International Version)

I’m blind as a bat without my glasses. They’re the first thing I put on when waking in the morning, and the last thing I take off before retiring at night. Without them I can’t distinguish anything very well, at all. I cannot see others unless they are inches from my face.

As bad as it would be if I didn’t have my glasses, it would be even worse if you were not seen by anyone. I believe that one of the great tragedies of modern Western civilization is that we can live among so many other people, yet not be seen by so many of them. The loneliness of not being seen is a terrible situation.

Hagar certainly felt that way. Perhaps even worse, she felt that God didn’t see her. It was as if God lost his glasses somewhere. 

Because a slave, Hagar’s body was not her own. Through a bunch of decisions out her control, she became pregnant with Abraham’s son. It was messy and complicated. Dysfunction was all around. A very pregnant Hagar ran away.

Having been abused by her mistress, we can feel Hagar’s despair… but there was someone watching, someone seeing the desperation on the face of a pregnant slave: God. 

The Lord saw everything – all the craziness, all the mistreatment – and stepped-in and acted on behalf of Hagar and her unborn son.

As a result, Hagar began to call God, “The God Who Sees Me.” She never again had to wonder or doubt whether she was seen. 

You might feel today that God doesn’t see your pain, is aloof and distant from your hurt, and is blind to your deep wounds. But God sees… all of it. The Lord may not be working on the same timetable as you and me, but nevertheless, you are seen with divine eyes.

You “see,” there is someone watching who specializes in hard cases. The Lord came alongside Hagar and spoke a promise to her that she could hold onto in her time of trouble. It was a promise way beyond what she could have dreamed of, far above her station in life.

Hagar gave a name to God. “El Roi” means “the God who sees.” At a low point in Hagar’s life when it seemed she was an unseen nobody, God showed up and let her know different.

I’m sure there have been times in your life, just like there have been situations in my life, where you wonder if anybody sees you, including God. You feel that if you stepped off the earth today, nobody would even notice or care.

Conversely, to be seen brings wonder, joy, and awe into life. To know the God who sees you is to be transported into the garden of paradise, enjoying divine presence and fellowship.

You are not alone. The Lord knows your every move. God watches because God loves and adores you. The almighty Lord is not a god who is aloof and distant. The One true God looks upon you and me with the kind of affection that a new parent has standing over the crib of their infant child. It’s a look of care, protection, joy, pride, and compassion.

One of the most fundamental theological statements we could say about God is: The Lord sees each individual person, and the Lord of all creation cares for each one.

Yes, terrible tragedies and gut-wrenching evil exist in this twisted mixed-up world. And God has anger and wrath, and is not okay with all the injustice throughout the earth. Yet, God’s wrath exists because of God’s love. The Lord will do something about it, and will do it in the proper time.

God is working out good purposes and plans. God will judge the living and the dead. The Lord has not forgotten you. God sees you, created in the divine image and likeness, and will act on your behalf.

Blessed are you, Sovereign God of all, to you be praise and glory forever. In your tender compassion the dawn from on high is breaking upon us to dispel the lingering shadows of night. As we look for your coming among us, open our eyes to behold your presence. Strengthen our hands to do your will, so that the world may rejoice and give you praise. Blessed be you, God almighty. Amen.

Wait for the Lord (Isaiah 64:1-9)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
    so that the mountains would quake at your presence—

as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
    so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
    you came down; the mountains quaked at your presence.
From ages past no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
    who works for those who wait for him.
You meet those who gladly do right,
    those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
    because you hid yourself we transgressed.
We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on your name
    or attempts to take hold of you,
for you have hidden your face from us
    and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
    we are the clay, and you are our potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
    and do not remember iniquity forever.
    Now consider, we are all your people. (New Revised Standard Version)

Sometimes it feels like the whole world is messed up, with no resolution in sight. Everything is sideways.

In those moments, when I wonder if there will ever be glory after all the hardship and suffering, I come back to what I firmly believe and bank my life upon: God sees. God cares. God is still actively working behind the scenes in ways I don’t presently see. Truly, the invisible hand of God is looking after my life.

The ancient Israelites, in Isaiah 64, cried out for help because, although they could not see God, they trusted that somehow, someway, they were being seen. The prophet wanted God’s presence manifested in such a way that it would be recognized by both God’s people and God’s enemies.

The people cried out for mountains to quake, brushwood to burn, and water to boil. In other words, the people wanted the Lord to show up in a dramatic way. That’s neither a weird desire nor an offbeat prayer from God’s people. After all, the Lord has showed up and showed off with wondrous and awesome deeds for a long time in their history:

  • Divine plagues on Egypt forced Pharaoh to release Israel from bondage and go their own way
  • Divine deliverance brought them miraculously through the Red Sea
  • Divine judgment caused the waters to overwhelm the Egyptian army
  • Divine provision gave manna out in the desert
  • Divine presence was with the people as they entered the Promised Land
  • The Divine Warrior flattened the walls of Jericho and went before the people in fighting their battles

Indeed, God intervened with consistency. In today’s Old Testament lesson, there’s a qualification, a sort of prerequisite, which is given in order to realize God’s involvement: If the people want to see God move on their behalf, they will have to be patient and wait on the Lord.

Waiting. It seems to be the bane of many a person’s existence. Many people would rather do just about anything but wait. And yet, throughout the Bible’s Old Testament, people are exhorted to do just that: wait…

Wait for the Lord;
    be strong, and let your heart take courage;
    wait for the Lord!

Psalm 27:14, NRSV

Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him, and he will act.
He will make your vindication shine like the light
    and the justice of your cause like the noonday.

Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him;
    do not fret over those who prosper in their way,
    over those who carry out evil devices.

Refrain from anger and forsake wrath.
    Do not fret—it leads only to evil.
For the wicked shall be cut off,
    but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. (Psalm 37:5-9, NRSV)

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,
    and he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the pit of despair,
    out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground
    and steadied me as I walked along. (Psalm 40:1-2, NLT)

The psalmist, along with the faithful throughout the ages, can testify that patience with God is worth the wait. There is no answer to our dilemmas quite like that of God’s. And it’s really no use trying to cajole or manipulate God into acting sooner or quicker.

Although we are subject to time, God is above time, and is not subject to anyone’s clock. God will act when God will act, even if it seems painstakingly slow to us. Let’s not try to figure out God’s timetable. If Jesus wasn’t privy to the entire divine schedule, then what makes us think we’ll get a look at it?

“One of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God.” Oswald Chambers

Perhaps we ought to look more at ourselves and consider our own thoughts and actions. Are we really ready to receive what God wants to give us? Why do we want what we want? Is it for God’s glory, and the common good of all persons, or simply for our own narrow purposes?

It would be better if we consider that God’s word and promises are more powerful than any struggle we go through along the way. If we know the promise is truly coming, and it’s based in divine words, we can wait for it patiently.

For the ancient people, God promised to be the God of Israel; the people needed to be reminded that God’s apparent “slowness” doesn’t translate to a “no” in prayer. God created the elephant who never forgets, as well as the goldfish who never remembers. Take a guess which one is God and which one is us.

Even though God can be disappointed with our sinful behavior, and may allow us to die like a withered leaf in autumn, the Lord’s purpose isn’t for our destruction nor our destitution. God’s anger only lasts a moment, but the Lord’s favor endures for a lifetime.

Almighty and gracious God, help me to become patient, as Christ was patient. Through your guidance, may I become more accepting of my circumstances, and others around me. Assist me to welcome difficult times with a patient heart, through Jesus my Lord, in the strength of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Psalm 11 – Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Faith?

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

I have taken refuge in the Lord.
How can you say to me:
“Flee to your mountain like a bird?
Wicked people bend their bows.
They set their arrows against the strings
to shoot in the dark at people whose motives are decent.
When the foundations of life are undermined,
what can a righteous person do?”

The Lord is in his holy temple.
The Lord’s throne is in heaven.
His eyes see.
They examine Adam’s descendants.
The Lord tests righteous people,
but he hates wicked people and the ones who love violence.
He rains down fire and burning sulfur upon wicked people.
He makes them drink from a cup filled with scorching wind.
The Lord is righteous.
He loves a righteous way of life.
Decent people will see his face. (God’s Word Translation)

We all know what it feels like to take the brunt of someone’s poison verbal darts. And it’s scary. What do you do? In a state of fear, shock, or panic, we will likely either fight, flight, freeze, or faith.

If you have ever received a nasty email based on half-truths and accusations; stood dumbfounded as someone hurled misinformation and criticism at you; and/or experienced the victimization that comes from slanderous and gossiping tongues, then the psalmist knows exactly how you feel. 

Cobbling together a hasty email response, full of anger and vitriol, only sucks us into the person’s evil ways. Metaphorically punching someone in the face for their slap to your face is how the demonic realm handles offenses. Fighting back with an equal or greater force is diametrically opposed to the way of Jesus in loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us.

Then, there is the response of taking flight from the nastiness. Indeed, it sometimes seems as if good people are always getting swallowed whole by unjust words and behaviors directed squarely at them. And it doesn’t help when the downers among us stroll along and give us their unhelpful fatalism about how there is nothing we can do and how nothing will ever change.

For others, they are just plain dumbfounded that another person can be so mean or controlling, so they freeze, unable to speak or do anything. They end up suffering in silence, without their victimization having a voice.

To be the target of evil speech or malevolent actions is, at the least, unsettling, and, at worst, can bring years of struggle, depression, and inability to serve. Yet, there is someone who sees it all, and that someone will address the wrong. We have an option beyond fighting back in anger or fleeing altogether in fear. We can trust God.

The Lord sits aloft, overseeing all, and knows everything humanity does and says. God always does right and wants justice done. Everyone who shares a divine sense of what is right and just will see God’s face. God will act because the Lord abhors and despises those who are cruel and enjoy violence.

It’s not a good idea to get on God’s bad side. The way to flare God’s anger is by possessing an acerbic tongue; relishing in verbal violence; and, having no remorse about any of it. Because God loves people, God hates evil. The righteous are to take solace in the truth that God really does see the harm done and is in a position to do something about it. Like the psalmist, we seek the Lord. The Lord fights our battles.

Whenever we are harassed and the ungodly give us a hard time, the psalmist isn’t offering some nice religious platitudes such as, “Just let go and let God,” “Everything works for the good of those who love God,” or “It’s okay, you’ll be in heaven someday.”

In another context, maybe those statements are helpful. But being in the teeth of the wicked, all is not okay. As much as some folks try to sanitize an evil situation with rainbows and butterflies, the evil is real, and it’s there. The truth is that everything is not okay. The earth is filled with violence, malevolence, oppression, injustice, and systemic evil. The psalmist knows this, all too well.

Humble yourselves under God’s power so that he may raise you up in the last day. Throw all your anxiety onto him because he cares about you. (1 Peter 5:6-7, CEB)

Today’s psalm is reminding and reassuring us that the Lord is aware of what’s going on and will most certainly do something about it. God will act to punish the wicked and deliver the Lord’s people. There may not be peace this present moment, yet it will not always be this way. We shall behold the face of the Lord.

The Lord is a righteous judge. Justice is the foundation of God’s throne. God sees the entire spectrum of humanity and can make a right assessment of people’s thoughts, intents, words, and actions. We, however, cannot. Therefore, it is most necessary for us to put our trust in a Divine Being who cares about right and wrong and has the power to act with justice.

Whenever we are hemmed-in through the schemes of diabolical persons and are powerless, there is always the choice to trust in the Lord. The outcome of every life on earth rests in the hands of God. And it will be a just and right rendering.

Trust in the Lord and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. We might struggle mightily on both the inside and outside – our hard circumstance might not change immediately – yet God is the One who will vindicate the just person when the time is right.

You are not alone. The Lord is with you always.

God of justice, look at the state of your servant and act on my behalf. Do not let evil prevail. Thwart the ungodly so that they can no longer do any harm. Amen.