“7 Be
strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor
for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him8 With
him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to
fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah
king of Judah”.
The very first time I ponder over this topic based on
experience; I thought the phrase was directly from the bible until I started
writing about it. I later found out that it was from the song “stand up, stand
up for Jesus”. However, I found out that the biblical injunction of the same
phrase even made things worse. Rather than just being an advice, the book of
Jeremiah painted it different as rightly recorded in Jeremiah 17:5, “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that
trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the
Lord”.
We could
relate this phrase to the common axiom that says, “Human Confidence is Vanity”.
In every step we take, every move or decision we make in life, we should be
assured that it tends to our future. So, rightly put, our actions, inactions,
writings and utterances are the embodiment of who we grow up to be. Crisis is
part of daily living and crisis is nothing but the distance between our
expectations and reality. How many times
newly wed and even young couples feel like their happiness is dependent upon
the other rather than focusing on God? The wife feels like her joy would be
made complete by the man she marries and vice versa. Family members do expect a
brother/sister, uncle/aunt or even cousin who is favored by nature as the
lifter of their burden. Remember the bible says Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee, Psalm
55:22a.
As believers, God
had given us His Invitation, Instruction and Code of Conduct.
Until we are ready to adhere to what God desire from us, our dependency in man;
hopes and aspirations is just another privilege wasted. In Matthew 11:28, the invitation was well explicit, “Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”. The instruction was in the famous Matthew
7:7-8, “Ask, and it will
be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks, finds, and to him who knocks
it will be opened”. The code of conduct was
inscribed in John 14:14, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” Jesus
said
God is aware of us. He’s aware of our weaknesses as well as our shortcomings.
Instead of looking up unto man, or self-made god, based on our assessment of
them, we should set our eyes on the hill. If we need help in life, just as God
made Eve out of Adam as a helpmate, He would as well send us help. Our destiny
helpers are always available if we let Him into our acclaimed troubles and
trials. The arm of flesh will always fail. How many times our fellow men help
us and they want us to serve them forever? We live under suppressed oppression
because someone somewhere helped us to climb the ladder of success in life.
From the passage above, we should learn to be courageous and not feel dismay
because our God is always willing, able and
ready to help us. Do not assume your
ascension in career, or your joy in life endeavor, or the peace of mind in your
home to be dependent on any human being, even the so called men and women of
God. Our relationship with God will always bail us out. So. Let us trust Him and develop a
relationship with Him daily, and He will always be there to see us through our
supposed challenges of life.
Image-Google Image
No comments:
Post a Comment