Fear No Fear

“The Lord shall protect you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from now and for evermore” (Psalm 121:7-8, MEV). Jesus loves us enough to provide us good opportunities and to sabotage bad ones. Sometimes we have to work REALLY hard in order to go wrong. It isn’t because we can’t do ungodly things – especially before we’re saved. We certainly can choose that. It’s easy. But God loves us. He loved us BEFORE we were saved. He loved us when we were ignorant, looking away from Him, and actively choosing ungodly things because we liked them (Romans 5:8). God is a god of roadblocks. He is a god of stumbling stones. When we look back on our lives with kingdom eyes, we can see MANY places where God put obstacles in our path or allowed them in order to keep us from easily choosing sinful things. Growing up there were a few sinful things that I programmed into myself. I accepted lies about them. I considered them normal and good. I went WAY too far in seeking after them. And unfortunately, I succeeded a fair bit. But looking back now, knowing the truth and seeing the lies, I cannot help but be thankful to the Lord. The devil will bring those incidents to mind in order to foster shame or guilt or regret. But it always ends with me praising the Lord because I can CLEARLY see what He saved me from. The blinders I was wearing not to see the offered opportunity. The gimpy personality quirks that helped me miss the chance to participate. Or in some cases the sheer laziness I had combined with the satisfaction of being complacent that led me to reject several opportunities which would have put me in a place where I can see I would have made bad choices. God did that. He used my weaknesses for my benefit. He placed blocks in my way. I still did some doozies, but He saved me from so much more – and even more that I don’t know about. No matter how many bad choices we make. No matter how much we fell short of where He wanted us. No matter what happened to us. God was there protecting us from worse. God was there helping us harden our hearts even more. God looked out for us before we even knew Him. That’s love.