A Happy Hiding Place

Do you take comfort in the fact that God protects you and watches over you? Do you take joy in the fact that God cares about you? Sometimes it's easy to get bogged down in the troubles of life and forget that we have God to take refuge in.

David says in Psalms 5:11, "Let all who take refuge in you be glad and ever sing for joy." In the protection of God is just a great place to be. It doesn't mean that the good times are going to roll non-stop, or that you'll always have everything you want, but you'll know that God is watching over you. That's more comfort than any thing or other person could provide.

Psalms 5:12 continues with "Surely you bless the righteous and surround them with your favor like a shield." God's favor is a pretty tough shield. There's not anything you could do that could protect you more. God loves you and He'll protect you. What an awesome reassurance we have!

Assumptions

We all make them from time to time, and oddly enough, no matter how often they're wrong, we continue to make them. This is a problem that has been repeating itself from the time of Adam, when God said, "If you eat of this tree you will die." Eve assumed God was wrong on the word of the serpent, Adam assumed God was wrong on the word of Eve, and the pattern with man has continued every since.

We find in Genesis 20 the story of Abraham, and another clear example of a wrong assumption. Genesis 20:1-2 reveals to us the plot of the story: Abraham says Sarah is his sister, and the king takes her for his wife. Genesis 20:3-9 continues the story, how God came to the king and the king calls Abraham to him. Genesis 20:10-11 brings us to the point where Abraham is faced with the truth of his assumption.

The king asks Abraham, "Why did you do this?", and Abraham honestly replies, "I thought that there was no fear of God here." We saw in Genesis 20:5-6 that Abimelech had not intended any wrong in taking another man's wife, and God had protected him from any sin in his ignorance. We have no indicator as to why Abraham might have thought the place might be ungodly, but Abraham's assumption brought a king to the brink of destruction.

How often do we just make an assumption and act on it without any second thought, prayer, or questioning? We can see what a dangerous thing it is to make assumptions; how that not only ourselves, but many others as well can be affected by our assumptions. So, let's look at what we're doing and examine our thoughts closely before we act outside the will of God.

The Later Glory of the Victory

How often do we go about complaining because of the hard time our family is having? How often do we blame God or question His will because some thing has come up that seems like it's just too hard to bear? 1 Samuel 23 gives us an example where the Lord used the enemies of David attacking the Israelites in order to save David's life. The chapter starts with the Philistines attacking a town called Keilah, and David asks God if he should go and fight them, and God instructs him to save Keilah. So, David follows the instruction of the Lord, and he wins a great victory (1 Samuel 23:1-5).

Saul, the current king, has been trying to kill David, and he sees this as an opportunity, since the city apparently was walled and gated (1 Samuel 23:7). However, the Lord had anointed David to be king, and David was in the will of God in saving the city of Keilah. So Saul here is not fighting a battle against David, but really he's fighting against God. David prays again, and God instructs him to leave the city (1 Samuel 23:10-12). Now remember, the king should have been protecting his people, but instead, he was more worried about killing God's anointed; God's anointed was protecting the people.

So we see toward the end of the chapter that Saul finally almost catches up to David, but God steps in and brings the Philistines back into the picture when a messenger comes to Saul in urgency that they are "raiding the land". Apparently, the part of the land that they were raiding was important enough to Saul for him to turn back to go fight them this time, and David was able to escape. So God used the very thing that David had won the victory over to cause Saul to stumble in his pursuit of David. If we are in the will of God, He can deliver us from one enemy using another one we've already beaten. We need to be sure to get the victory over our enemies when God leads us, so that He can use that for His glory on down the road.