Prepare with Eyes Wide Open

"Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming."
Matthew 24:42

God loves us so much!  He's adopted us (yet He lets us choose whether we actually want to be adopted) and even though that adoption is final, I know He can't wait to get his hands on us!  He yearns for us. He's waited patiently for us to all be together.  He's had a beautiful plan all along.  Part of that beautiful plan has been to destroy the enemy who has dared to come against His beloved--us.  But that's still in the future.

Have you ever known something, but then one day, through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, you really know that thing?  Last week I was meditating on Psalm 23.  You know in verse 4 where it says, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."?  I was remembering our trip to Israel.  

I didn't know until I went to Israel that there was an actual Valley of the Shadow of Death!  This is it.  It's a "highway" many travelers took 2000+ years ago to get to the temple each year.  The reason it was named Valley of the Shadow of Death is because there were wild animals, robbers, and murderers who hung out in this valley to prey on the people.  It was very dangerous to travel through there.

I'd always thought of Psalm 23:4 as the time when we walked through death--at the end of our lives.  But the revelation was that this old world and our walk through it--our whole lives--are spent in the Valley of the Shadow of Death.  The world is a place of death and has been ever since man sinned.  So even though God has promised us abundant life, His promise is fulfilled while we walk through this scary, dark valley filled with wild, dangerous things.

Life is scary.  And getting scarier.  But we don't have to walk afraid.  God is with us and is carrying His big rod and staff.  And He's an expert at taking out the enemy.  He's told us life is going to get hard at the end.  And it is.  Wars, earthquakes, fires, famines, diseases, terrorists, droughts, tornadoes...just to name a few.  He's prepared us by telling us there will be a one-world government.  In my mind, I knew our government would have to fall for a one-world government to take place.  I just didn't think about how that would look.  I think we're seeing it happen right before our eyes.  There was some invisible point in time where I believe we crossed a line and there seems to be no turning back.  

There will come a time when we won't know who to trust.  Do some of you remember playing Romans & Christians?  The game was for the "Christians" to get to Jesus without the "Romans" capturing them and putting them in prison.  But you didn't know who the Romans were.   We played wild games of this with our youth.  (You'd love the way they play it here--all over town in Groom!)  There may come a time in our future when we don't know who to trust.  We don't have a Walter Cronkite...giving us the news each night in a firm, calm voice we trusted.  We've become a distrustful society;  probably with good reason.  

Here's what we need to know in the days ahead.  You can trust God.  He has gone before you, He comes behind you, and He keeps His hand of blessing on you.  You are His treasure!  DON'T FEAR!!  He is near, He is listening, He is ready to protect you. He has you in His everlasting arms, His wings shield you, He is a gallant warrior on a white horse ready to swoop in to rescue you!  He is bigger than our enemy!!  He has already won the war even though there's a battle ahead.  Bad things may come, but He is always a GOOD GOD!  He speaks to us, He sings over us, He carries us.  He is tender towards His children but He is ruthless with the enemy.  He is mighty, He is strong, He is a DELIVERER!!  

YOU CAN TRUST GOD!!!