Warren
Wiersbe, the American writer, says we live by promises not explanations
and I have thought much about that. When bad things happen to
us we naturally ask "Why? - Why me? Why this? Why now? But
would the answer to such questions really help us? Perhaps, but
God in His Word gives us promises rather than explanations. He
expects us to trust Him.
Take a promise like Isaiah 41.10 that comes from a mosaic of comfort
for difficult days. God says to us, "Fear not, for I am with
you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right
hand". This promise belongs to a big cluster of "Fear
nots" in the Bible. God knows how easily fear can get the
upper hand, so again and again He says to us "Fear not".
Somebody has counted up these "Fear nots" and he reckons
that there are 366 of them! That's one for every day of the year,
including a leap year! So every day God says to us, "Fear
not".
And He gives us some good solid reasons why we shouldn't be afraid.
In this verse He roots them in Himself, in His own character,
and in His own faithfulness. Twice He says, "I am",
and three times He says, "I will", and we can draw buckets
of assurance from these four words, like drawing refreshing water
from a deep well.
First of all God says, "I am with you" and that makes
inroads into our fear straightaway. We can face things with God
that we could never face on our own. This ties in with Hebrews
13:5,6. God says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you".
So we may boldly say: "The Lord is my helper". For God
is no mere spectator in our lives. He's not like a football supporter
who sits in the stands and shouts encouragement to his team. God
is with us to help us at any hour of the day or night. He's always
on hand. We can count on His presence every day.
Then God says, "Be not dismayed, for I am your God".
Dismay and fear belong to the same family, but dismay is a more
active word. It means 'to dart glances this way and that', like
an escaped prisoner, as if not knowing where to look for safety.
So God is saying, "Keep your eyes on Me for I am your God.
Nobody else can do for you what I can". How true that is!
Yet when trouble comes we can so easily get distracted from God.
We must be on our guard for our enemy the devil has a hand in
that. He works hard to derail us and demoralize us. He doesn't
want us relying on God so he will try in all sorts of ways to
undermine our confidence in Him. So we must refuse to be distracted.
We must keep looking to the Lord. We must keep our lives open
to Him.
For God can do so much for us. He says, "I will strengthen
you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you". And the Hebrew
has more in it than comes out in our English translation. The
words "strengthen", "help", and "uphold"
are prefaced by a particle that heaps up one thought on another.
We could translate, "Yes, I will strengthen you! Indeed,
I will help you! Why, I will uphold you!" What an encouragement!
When
the bad days come we can feel so weak, so vulnerable, so inadequate.
We wonder how we can possibly cope. Things threaten to get on
top of us. So God says to us, "I will strengthen you".
What a promise! In the previous chapter we see what kind of strength
this is. The prophet says, "Even the youths shall faint and
be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who
wait on the Lord shall renew their strength". So this is
not physical strength; it's an inner spiritual strength. It's
the ability to cope.
Isaiah says, "They shall mount up with wings as eagles"
- so we can rise above our circumstances. He says, "They
shall run and not be weary" - so we can face up to life's
demands. And he says, "They shall walk and not faint"
- so we can keep going even if it's a long haul. And this ability
to cope is given to those who "wait on the Lord", which
means to look to Him, to trust Him, to rely on Him.
Then God says, "Yes, I will help you". Again, what a
promise! God says, "I will not leave you to cope by yourself;
I will come to your aid. I will provide for you. I will send my
supply trucks into your life. I'll see you through". This
"help" is bound up with God's name, Jehovah. It's been
translated "The Becoming One" for God can become to
us just what we need.
Finally God says, "I will uphold you with My righteous right
hand". Again, what a promise! When bad things happen we find
it so difficult to stay on our feet. They can bowl us over, they
can get us down. God says, "I'll help you to stand up to
things". And He puts His trusty hand under our elbow and
lifts us up and enables us to keep going.
If we live by promises not, explanations then here's one of God's
great promises. Let's learn it by heart. Let's milk all the encouragement
we can from it. And let's keep reminding ourselves of it especially
when fear begins to threaten us. It will help us to live in God's
peace.
Pastor
Alec Judd is a colleague and friend. We shared together in ministry
in Lurgan Baptist Church from 1991 - 1995. Since he retired,
he has been a member of Moira Baptist Church. He still is involved
in a preaching and teaching ministry throughout Ireland.
