Safe In God’s Arms
Safe In God’s Arms
Isaiah 43:2
God is always with us, protecting us and watching over us. No matter how great the storm, how deep the river or how dark the night we are always safe in his arms.
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned: the flames will not set you ablaze”. Isaiah 43:2
Introduction …
After preaching the last two weeks about how times and hard and how God calls us to serve him and expects us to be faithful to him, I promised to follow up with what else God said in these scriptures that was important for us to know. So, today I make the third and final installment on this series of messages from the Lord. Today, I keep my promise to you – this is the really good news you need to hear.
The reward of answering God’s call and of being faithful to him is that He will always be with us, he will never leave us alone and we are always safely tucked in his arms.
There is no river too deep.
There is no mountain too high.
There is no desert too dry, and
no wind too strong that God won’t be with us and help us through.
The joy of answering God’s call and of being faithful to Him is that God rewards us by always looking over us and protecting us.
Because we are God’s people and He is our God we are always in his arms, always in the shadow of his presence and never alone.
When I was a boy I would often sneak down to the river and play on the banks of the river, often venturing out in the sometimes unpredictable and unknown currents. I say “sneak down to the river because my brother and I weren’t allowed to go to the river but most of the time my brother and I and our friends found it far more fun and far easier to just go down to the river and play whether we allowed to or not. Fun waited, challenge awaited, new adventures awaited. Like Huck Fin of the old days we went down to the river looking for all the hidden adventures that were waiting for us.
Sometimes we found more adventure than we were expecting.
Sometimes we found ourselves in unknown territory.
Sometimes we found ourselves in deep water – deeper than we even knew.
Henry and Roger and Bobby Kowalski and Brother Steve and I often were in times and places where we were in “over our heads”, where crisis often lay just ahead and where we weren’t capable of handling the situations we put ourselves in.
It doesn’t really matter that we put ourselves in deep water when we went down to the river to play or that we deserved some of the trouble we created God was always with us, God was always watching over us, God was always with there.
I. There are always time in life when we are in danger, or in difficulty or in over our heads.
Sometimes life seems to be more than we can handle.
Sometimes problems seem to come one on top of another and we reach wit’s end.
Sometimes we find ourselves facing issues at home with our families, or at work with our jobs or at church or the Scouts or any of the other places of our lives and we wonder how much more we can take.
* As parents our children get be out of control.
* As children or teens our parents can seem to be overbearing and not trusting.
* Finances can become a constant strain when it seems we have too many demands, too many bills and not enough money. If it’s not the car or the medical problems or the mortgage or the rent or the clothing it’s any one of the other incessant needs that press down on us.
* We suddenly find ourselves diagnosed with a terrible, even life threatening illness or disease.
* Problems at work can bear down on us in any one of hundreds of ways.
Life can be hard.
Life can be challenging.
Life can be unfair and unrelenting.
II. Whether we are aware of it or not, whether we appreciate it or not God and whether we deserve or not God is always with us, watching over us and guiding us.
So it is in life for all of us.
God is always with us.
God is always providing love and care for us.
No matter how desperate the situation; no matter how unaware we are, no matter whether we put ourselves in the deep water or whether it just came upon us, God is always there with us.
We are always safely in God’s arms.
God is with us through the angels he sends to watch over us and help us. There may be “angels” that I don’t know about or haven’t seen or heard in the world but I sure know the angels in the form of the people who share our lives us. Family and friends offer their love and support and guidance to help us through the hard times, and the deep water and the dark nights.
God is with us through the guidance he provides us in response to our prayers.
God is with us through the insights he opens to us through our own thinking and praying or through the words and love of others.
God is with us through the always renewing and life giving renewal of nature.
God is with through the words of the scriptures which are always there to inspire us, renew us, restore us and guide us in life.
God is with us in more ways than we could ever know.
All we really need to know is that in all of life God is with us.
III. Knowing God is always with you brings you security in life and enables you to face any danger, cross any river, and face any challenge with the sure and certain knowledge that God will be with you all the way.
That God will always be with us and watch over us brings faith, strength and confidence to us throughout our lives and even at the end of life itself.
God has promised to always love us and that love calls us to love others as we have been loved.
God has promised to always forgive us and that forgiveness calls us to forgive others as we have been forgiven.
God has promised to give us life, abundant life, both here and in eternity and that promise of eternal life gives us security in this life.
God has promised to watch over us and knowing God watches over us calls us to watch over each other.
And I believe that God’s promises are for real and his word is good which in turns calls me to do my best at making my promises real and good.
Knowing God is with us gives us strength beyond our own.
Knowing God is with enables us to take on situations we might not otherwise take on, go places we would never go, become people we never dreamed of becoming. With God all things are possible.
Knowing God is always with us gives confidence to live our lives to the fullest, enjoy the blessings of the good days and have strength on the bad days.
Knowing God is always with us helps us as we grow older and our strength becomes more and more limited to know that no matter, we have God at our side to help us through.
Ultimately, knowing God is with us helps to know that when the end of the days is upon we will enter into the great unknown to a new life, a new future, a new way of being to be with God and all our loved ones who have gone on before us.
Nations, families and individuals seek security. We all want security. While we want and achieve the levels of security the world can bring us we all need and want security that is greater than anything the world can bring us.
We find lasting security in God.
* We find lasting security, not in our houses, but in God’s house.
* We find lasting security, not in physical health but in spiritual health.
* We find lasting security, not in the world’s kingdom but in God’s kingdom.
* We find lasting security, not in the arms of men, but in God’s arms.
We never know where the next crisis in life will come from.
But, we can know that if we are safely cradled in God’s arms we will be alright.
I do not know what any of us will face in the new year or in the years to come but I know that that if we seek refuge in the arms of God we will be alright – no matter what comes our way.
When you experience spiritual challenges in your life…
When you experience physical challenges in your life…
When you wonder how you will make it…
When you wonder how you will help others in their times of deep water, I pray you will remember that we are always in God’s embrace.
Remember the blessing that Moses pronounced over the Israelites:
“The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath
are the everlasting arms” (Deut 33:27, NIV)
Even though we do not know the future each of us can experience it with faith and confidence because we know God will be us.
Furthermore, the same arms that give you security hold all of those who know him, who seek him and who answer his call.
What will be your challenges this year?
What dangers lay ahead for you this year?
What ill winds may be being blowing your way?
What deep waters will you find yourselves in?
What harms lay before you?
What strains will come your way?
I know not nor does anyone else. But this I do know:
God will be with you.
God will be there for you.
God will be there to hold you safely and securely in his arms.
Closing…
One day last year I saw Shay crying and sobbing. He was sobbing as only a small chid who has lost his last friend or hurt himself or found himself all alone can sob.
Shay was sobbing from the top of his head to the bottoms of his feet. The tears weren’t just coming from his eyes – they were coming from every pore in his body.
I called him over and knelt down to be with him on his own level. I asked what was wrong. He was still sobbing too hard to tell me. He couldn’t get out a complete sentence because whatever was wrong was too big, too serious, too current for him to get beyond the sobs.
I don’t remember what the problem was but it was something that I could help with. I don’t remember the crisis but I figured I could help. I offered some relief. As I recall my approach was “unconventional” or a little “wired” but it worked. Suddenly, the sobs stopped. Suddenly the tears dried up, that beautiful smile of Shays appeared back on face, the devil in his grin reappeared and all was right in the world of Shay once again.
Sometimes life overwhelms all of us.
Sometimes life becomes more than we can bear.
Sometimes we find ourselves overwhelmed, besieged, facing mountains too high, rivers too wide, currents too strong.
The problems aren’t always as easy to solve as a young boys were that day.
There is always a “Dr. Bob” there to hold us and help us overcome.
The answers are sometimes much more elusive, much more far reaching and not so obvious.
But, those are the days, those are the times, those are the circumstances when we need to know and remember that God is always there with us. When faced with overwhelming circumstances, over arching challenges, situations for which there are no easy answers we need to remember that God is always there with us, loving us, guiding us, helping us to know we are safely and securely held in his arms.
What I wanted Shay to know and for us to know is that no matter how hard our lives become, no matter how difficult the times are God will always be there for us – whether our friends will be or not.
No matter how old we become;
No matter how difficult our life becomes;
No matter what dangers we face.
All we need to know is that we are held safely and securely in the arms of a loving and caring God.
God never forgets us.
God never leaves us alone.
God never abandons us.
Yes, the times are uncertain.
Yes, the times are hard.
Yes, the water sometimes is much too deep and the river much too wide to swim.
But, when we hear and respond to the call of God we are never alone, we are never without resources and we are always safely and security held in his arms.
When you have difficult decisions to make cling to God
When you find yourself in deep water, reach for the arms of God.
When you face challenges, seek safety in God
Safe in the arms of God – now that’s security!
“When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned: the flames will not set you ablaze”.
Isaiah 43:2