An MRI last night revealed new bruise on John’s brain, but old contusions and hematoma are healing. Discharge date is next Tuesday, January 20th!!! Yay! Go God! Blood clot will just take time to dissolve.
Those are current facts that we can hear and see.
But let me tell you what has happened that cannot be seen, except through faith.
This is what happened.
Really.
I memorized Psalm 18:1-19 a few months ago. The Word of God is alive and active and This passage has been alive in me, breathing its strength as if it was my own personal ventilator. The past two weeks these Scriptures have been active within me, running around my soul and heart like bike messengers spreading truth.
So I’d like to share it with you. Scripture is in italics. I’ve put our names into the verses.
Here goes:
Psalm 18: 1) I love you O Lord my Strength!
Absolutely – John and Noah and I have each declared the Trinity – God, Jesus and Holy Spirit – as the rulers of our home and lives. We have chosen Him to be our Lord and our Strength and our Love!
The next verse is something I have prayed over and declared over John many times as he lay in the hospital bed:
2) The Lord is John’s rock, his fortress and his deliverer; Our God is John’s rock, in whom John can take refuge. God is John’s shield, the horn of his salvation, his stronghold.
David who wrote this psalm faced many enemies and many battles. Through John's accident, the next verses became more relevant than ever to me:
3) John and I called to the Lord who is worthy of praise, and we am saved from my enemies. 4) The cords of death entangled us; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed us. 5 )The cords of the grave coiled around us; the snares of death confronted us.
Yikes. John could have died. Thoughts of his mortality have occurred. As he has progressed a few steps and then gone back a few steps, I have seen clearly that we are in a battle. The enemies of Discouragement and Fear and Lies sit around waiting for us to ask them to dinner. So we need help.
6) In our distress, we have called to the Lord. We have cried to God for HELP!!! From His temple He heard our voices. Our cries came before Him, into His ears.
So He heard us. He heard all the prayer warriors across the country praying on behalf of John. Look what happened next. It’s pretty cool.
7) The earth trembled and quaked and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because He was ANGRY! 8) Smoke rose from His nostrils; consuming fire came from His mouth, burning coals blazed out of it!
Was He angry at me? At John? NO! He was angry at those enemies – discouragement, fear and lies! He was angry because they were messing with HIS CHILDREN! God loves each of us with a furious love. So what did He do?
9)He parted the heavens and came down, dark clouds under His feet. 10) He mounted the cherubim and FLEW! He SOARED on the wings of the wind!
I imagine a parent running to rescue their child in danger. God don’t play!
11)He made darkness His covering. A great canopy around Him – the dark rain clouds of the sky. 12)Out of the brightness of His presence clouds advanced with hailstones and bolts of lightning. 13) The Lord THUNDERED from Heaven; the voice of the MOST HIGH RESOUNDED!
And then…our Abba Daddy…the Warrior of All...went to battle for us.
14)He shot His arrows and scattered OUR ENEMIES, great bolts of lightning and routed them. 15) The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at YOUR REBUKE, O LORD, at the blast of breath from Your Nostrils!
So God took out Discouragement, Fear, Lies! He gave a whooping to those forces that were trying to take away victory from John and I! And then came the best part…
16) He reached down from on high and took hold of John and me; He drew us out of deep waters. 17) He rescued us from our powerful enemy, from our foes who were too strong for us. 18) They confronted us in the day of our disaster, but the Lord was OUR SUPPORT!
And then …
19) He brought us, John and I, out into a spacious place; He rescued us because HE DELIGHTS IN US!
And that’s what happened!!!
Look up Psalm 18 and apply it to Your life. He delights in You, too and He wants to go to battle for you.a
2 comments:
This is an awesome post. So true. So kind of God to give you that passage ahead of time!
In spite of the roaring fire in front of which I'm sitting -- and counting my blessings -- I got chills while reading this, Robbie.
Most times we don't even consider how firmly He has us in hand, and then something like this happens and He touches us in so intimate a way we can do nothing but acknowledge it.
Thanks for sharing your moment of communion and worship, Robbie.
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