Walking With Christ

Lamentations 3:25–33  (25)The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.  (26)It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.  (27)It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.  (28)Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; (29)let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope; (30)let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.  (31)For the Lord will not cast off forever, (32)for, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; (33)for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.(ESV)

Sometimes protection doesn’t feel like protection.

There are moments in Scripture when God sheltered someone in a narrow place while His presence passed near.  The person couldn’t see everything God was doing.  They could only remain where He’d placed them until it was safe to move again.

Exodus 33:18–23  (18)Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”  (19)And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’  And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.  (20)But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”  (21)And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, (22)and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.  (23)Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”(ESV)

A seed experiences something similar.  It’s buried in darkness, covered on every side, and pressed into a world where it appears that nothing is alive.  It can’t see the changing season above it.  It can’t feel the warmth slowly returning to the ground.  It only knows that it has nowhere to go.

Then the world changes.

The same earth that once felt like a prison becomes the place from which new life emerges.  The seed finds a path toward the light because conditions it couldn’t see were being prepared beyond its reach.

The writer of Lamentations was still surrounded by destruction.  He hadn’t yet been shown the entire plan.  But he remembered that God doesn’t afflict from a cruel heart.  God’s compassion hadn’t disappeared simply because His goodness couldn’t yet be seen.

Sometimes the hand holding us still is shielding us while God prepares what comes next.  Sometimes what feels like burial is actually preservation.  We may believe that God is standing against us because He refuses to let us move, when He’s protecting us from entering a world we couldn’t yet survive.

That takes us back to the question where we began.

Romans 8:31  What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us?(ESV)

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Even when God opposes the direction we’re trying to go, He may still be completely for us.  We may not understand the darkness, the pressure, or the delay.

God understands.

God is good.

That’s enough.