Streams in the Desert - Nov 30
by L. B. E. Cowman and Jim Reimann
Later on, however . . . (Hebrews 12: 11)
Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the Lord, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life. (Jeremiah 45: 5)
This is a promise given to you for the difficult places in which you may find yourself— a promise of safety and life even in the midst of tremendous pressure. And it is a promise that adjusts itself to fit the times as they continue to grow more difficult, as we approach the end of this age and the tribulation period.
What does it mean when it says that you will “escape with your life”? It means your life will be snatched from the jaws of the Enemy, as David snatched the lamb from the lion. It does not mean you will be spared the heat of the battle and confrontation with your foes, but it means “a table before [you] in the presence of [your] enemies” (Ps. 23: 5), a shelter from the storm, a fortress amid the foe, and a life preserved in the face of continual pressure. It means comfort and hope from God, such as Paul received when he and his friends “were under great pressure, far beyond [their] ability to endure, so that [they] despaired even of life” (2 Cor. 1: 8). And it means the Lord’s divine help, such as when Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor. 12: 7 KJV) remained, but the power of Christ came to rest upon him, and he learned that God’s “grace is sufficient” (2 Cor. 12: 9).
May the Lord “wherever you go . . . let you escape with your life” and help you today to be victorious in your difficulties.
~from Days of Heaven upon Earth
We often pray to be delivered from afflictions, and even trust God that we will be. But we do not pray for Him to make us what we should be while in the midst of the afflictions. Nor do we pray that we would be able to live within them, for however long they may last, in the complete awareness that we are held and sheltered by the Lord and can therefore continue within them without suffering any harm.
The Savior endured an especially difficult test in the wilderness while in the presence of Satan for forty days and nights, His human nature weakened by the need for food and rest. The three Hebrew young men were kept for a time in the flames of “the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual” (Dan. 3: 19). In spite of being forced to endure the tyrant’s last method of torture, they remained calm and composed as they waited for their time of deliverance to come. And after surviving an entire night sitting among the lions, “when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God” (Dan. 6: 23).
They were able to endure in the presence of their enemies because they dwelt in the presence of their God.
Reference
Cowman, L. B. E.; Reimann, Jim (2008-09-09). Streams in the Desert: 366 Daily Devotional Readings (p. 446). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Categories: spiritual