Always Depend on the Lord’s Help 

Recently my wife and I went to see a couple of our young grandsons play soccer. On this Saturday morning in early March, we didn’t think much about protecting ourselves from the sun. The thought of applying sunscreen didn’t even enter my mind, and if it had, I would have rejected the idea as being unnecessary. After all, it was still officially wintertime. Additionally, the morning had begun quite cloudy and even slightly cool. However, as we sat out at the soccer field later, the sunshine burst through the overcast skies. I could feel the intense heat on my skin. I tried to move around and protect myself as best I could but still ended up with a slight sunburn.

Normally I am very cautious about applying sunscreen in order to avoid getting burned – maybe overly-cautious. Nevertheless on this occasion I was overconfident in my assessment of the situation and ended up paying the price for my miscalculation.

Sometimes we do the same thing in relation to the Lord. We are thankful that He is our protector and our strength. I love those verses in the Bible that remind us of that truth. “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped” (Psalm 28:7). We often depend on the Son to screen us from the spiritual and physical dangers around us. We pray, we lean on Him, and we expectantly look for His assistance. However, sometimes we are guilty of taking His protection for granted or else thinking this particular situation is such that we can handle it ourselves. We may not see our need to apply His promises of protection and help in these circumstances. It doesn’t look too tough. We think we have got this. But then we end up getting “burned”.

The people of Israel experienced that at times. They were so dependent on God when they approached the fortified city of Jericho. Those walls were an obstacle they couldn’t overcome in their own strength. But as they marched around those walls in faith and obedience to God, He knocked down those walls and opened the way for His people to win a great victory over their enemies. Nevertheless, it was immediately after that impressive incident that the Israelites faltered. When they faced their next battle, it didn’t appear to be very hard. Therefore they didn’t pray and trust God for help. They were so confident that they didn’t even send their full army to take care of the matter. They just sent a small representation of their troops to handle the situation. And what happened? They got burned. They lost.

Granted, there were factors involved in that situation the Israelites didn’t know about. One of their own people had sinned and brought God’s disfavor. However, if they had prayed and trusted God for help at the beginning, they would have discovered that problem instead of confidently marching ahead in their own strength resulting in a defeat.

Let’s not do the same thing. Let’s always try to keep in mind our dependence on the Lord. No matter how big or little the challenge may seem, we still need Him to be with us. Let’s not take His presence and protection for granted. We can’t see the full picture. We don’t know when the circumstances might unexpectantly change. We may not be aware of the tough temptation or powerful enemy hiding around the next corner. Let’s not get cocky about our ability to handle things on our own. We need to go through all of life with that constant awareness that is expressed in the old song, “I need Thee every hour.”

            Let’s be sure that we are trusting the Lord to be our shield and strength today.