Bruce Collins, Evangelist

Meditation for the week of May 17, 2009

2 Kings 6:15-16
And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?"  So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them."

Have you ever been in a predicament where you have said, “I have done everything that I can, I guess I will just have to trust the Lord!”  I think most of us have said that at some time or another.  If we haven’t said it, we have at least thought it.  But obviously, we should have trusted the Lord before we came to the end of our own resources.   I think that the reason we don’t trust the Lord until we have “come to an end of ourselves” is because most of us don’t like to depend on others and because sometimes we aren’t sure that the Lord is going to give us the results that we want. 

People generally do not trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation until they have found out that they can’t save themselves.  Most of us try everything we can to be saved before we are able to relax in the promise that Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).  We think that if we believe right, if we pray right, if we confess right we will be saved.  We have to find out that none of that counts because we simply need to do one of the hardest things any of us have ever done.  We need to put our complete confidence and trust in someone besides ourselves.  If we don’t come to that place of true repentance, we will always think that we did something to deserve salvation.  But God wants us to depend wholly on the Lord, not just partly.  He wants all the credit for saving us, not part of it.  I have seen people struggle with this, and often it takes a while before they can  “give up” and “just trust in the Lord”.  But when they do, they will always find that the Lord is trustworthy.

After we are saved, we have God for us (Romans 8:31), the Holy Spirit in us (Ephesians 1:13, and angels serving us (Hebrews 1:14).  With heaven on our side, why do we so often ask the question that the servant asked of Elisha, “What shall WE do?”  Elisha had the Lord open the servant’s eyes to see a heavenly army protecting them.  We know that there are a lot of things happening in our lives that we can’t see.  Ephesians 6:12 is clear that we are battling unseen forces.  We are not sufficient for this battle but the Lord is.

We need to learn to trust Him.  Instead of saying, “God helps those who help themselves” we need to learn that God fights the battles of those who live in fellowship with Him and who learn that they cannot trust themselves.  We can trust the Lord because God is faithful.

1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “ No temptation (test or trial) has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted (tested) beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

This verse convinces me that when we give the Lord control, there will be a way of escape.  We will not be overcome by the enemy.  My prayer is that the Lord would open our eyes to see and understand the protection that God has provided for us.

Bruce Collins