We’ve got it pretty cushy here in the United States. For instance, we can choose to go camping for the weekend and then come home to sleep in our nice comfortable beds. I do know of some ladies (and gentlemen too!) who wouldn’t dream of ‘roughing it’ even for a weekend.
By Christina Li
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Psalms 34: 4-10, “I sought the LORD, and he answered me; and he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing,” (NIV).
I love the verses above. I can take those verses as a promise to me. (These promises are for you too, my friends.) I can seek the Lord and He will answer. He may not answer in the way I want Him to, but He will answer me. He will deliver me from all my fears.
Recently, I was privileged to hear a man from Liberia speak, Pastor Edwin Yarsiah Forkpa. He has written a book called Fourth Man in the Fire and it is amazing. It is based on his own experiences living in Liberia during their civil war. In that book he talked about the fact that God chose not to deliver him from the fire. Instead, God walked with Pastor Forkpa THROUGH the fire. God, Himself, was that fourth man in the fire. Pastor Forkpa faced a firing squad and lived. In fact, God delivered him not once, but several times from death.
Quoted from the book, “God began to speak to me about the many lost souls trapped by the war [in Liberia]. What if they didn’t ever have a chance to go to a church and be saved? What would their fate be? The burden hung over me like a rain cloud.” Pastor Forkpa got together with another pastor and started a church right in that town they were all stuck in surrounded by armed men.
He continues, “The devil hadn’t succeeded in killing me and now it was my turn. We began walking around in the streets singing and inviting people to the service. Thirty-two people showed up on that porch to have church. Of course there was a much larger audience watching from the street…We sang and preached as the power of God fell. The people were worshiping God, speaking in tongues, and dancing before the Lord.”
“God said to me, ‘This is why I didn’t take you out of the war in the first place. I wanted to use you. All the preachers are gone…I preserved you to be a witness unto me.”‘ Pastor Forkpa concludes with, “God’s power is not limited to good times. While it is true that God is the Prince of Peace, He also remains the God of war and the Captain of our salvation.”
Let’s take a look at Psalms 34: 4-10 again.
“I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” A little child is unafraid and unashamed to ask for help. In fact, little ones expect it, fully trusting their parents to catch them when they fall. Isn’t it time we trust the Lord in this way, as well? He is our Father after all.
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