Show me Your ways, O LORD, teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long. Psalm 25:4-5.

“Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Matthew 8:26.

And continuing our 351 Old Testament prophecies, promises of God, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, we come to number 110: Betrayed by a familiar friend. Psalm 41:9: Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. And, John 13:18: “I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me.’”

The first Scripture verse from Hearing God by Dallas Willard continued so beautifully: “The Bible may prove a deadly snare for some as it did for those in Christ’s earthly days, who actually used Scripture to dismiss Him and His claims on them (John 5:36-47). Because of this we are warned in the Bible that we can twist Scripture to destroy ourselves as some did with Paul’s epistles, for “some things in them (are) hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16 NRSV). Our only protection from our own pride, fear, ignorance and impatience as we study the Bible is fellowship with the living Word, the LORD Himself, invoked in constant supplication from the midst of His people, as we see in this stanza from the hymn “Break Thou the Bread of Life” by Mary A. Lathbury: O send Thy Spirit, LORD, now unto me, that He may touch my eyes, and make me see; show me the truth concealed within Thy word, and in Thy book revealed, I see Thee LORD.” And this from You Are the Beloved by Henri Nouwen: “The greatest spiritual battle begins – and never ends – with the reclaiming of our chosenness. Long before any human being saw us, we are seen by God’s loving eyes. Long before anyone heard us cry or laugh, we were heard by our God who is all ears for us. Long before any person spoke to us in this world, we are spoken to by the voice of eternal love.”

Last night watching The Chosen In the Wild With Bear Grylls we saw Noah James who plays Andrew in The Chosen series. Even in the opening Bear said rightly that every great adventure begins with a leap of faith. So it is too with our walk with Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, a great adventure beginning with a leap of faith. James grew up in the Jewish faith and so he was able to bring his own beloved heritage to the Shabbat dinner scenes portrayed on screen for us, which must have been a unique joy for him. He said he was open to the question was Jesus truly the Messiah. Jew and Gentile, Arab and European, Asian and Nordic, all peoples of all nations will come to know when Jesus returns.

In prayer this morning He asked me if I trusted Him; in all the blindness and wrongness of this world, do I trust Him? And He has every right to ask me that question. And I told Him I do. All that is so wrong is hard and intractable and I can become overwhelmed. And in My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, this: “When we are afraid, the least we can do is pray to God. But our LORD has a right to expect that those who name His name have an underlying confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the ones who are reliable…”O you of little faith!” What a stinging pain that must have shot through the disciples as they surely thought to themselves, “We missed the mark again!” And what a sharp pain will go through us when we suddenly realize that we could have produced complete and utter joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident in Him, in spite of what we are facing…We have been talking quite a lot about sanctification, but what will be the result in our lives? It will be expressed in our lives as a peaceful resting in God, which means a total oneness with Him. And this oneness will make us not only blameless in His sight, but also a profound joy to Him.” And I think that is the whole point to this life we have been given. We each of us come to God with vastly different experiences born of our very different cultures, times lived, religious beliefs or lack of, upbringing, questions and doubts, all of it impacting each of us personally. And Creator God knows. He knew before He created this creation we inhabit so fleetingly now. And we all of us come to the same place individually. The difference God makes in our seeing and knowing Him. The difference God makes.

***PRAYER FOR ABSOLUTE PROTECTION – Dear Almighty Father, the enemy surrounds me; even my life is at risk. So I look to the only place in the universe where I have absolute protection: the house of the LORD. In the fear of God I find the wisdom that instructs me. Even if they destroy me, my soul is safe. I live eternally, only in You. Eternal life begins today with Christ in me. I am fully protected by the bestowal of Your Spirit and the spilling of Your blood. The enemy is crushed under Your heel. In the holiest of names – the name at which all must bow down – in the name of the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen. “Prayer for Absolute Protection,” prayerforanxiety.com. Adapted.***