That You May Be Able To Withstand In The Evil Day, And Having Done All To Stand –

Ephesians 6:13

When the Israelites fell away from God, when they went to battle on their own terms, Satan proved victorious over them, as he does to us today when we attempt to live life on our terms.

When we tune into God, hold on, and climb aboard the Heaven bound Trinity Express, and we will experience quite the opposite results!  When we are on God’s team, when we ride on His train, we place ourselves on the winning team.  We experience victory behind God’s sword and shield.  We become an integral part of God’s team.

God gives us the strength to stand when we can stand no longer.  Exodus 17:11-16 tells the story of Moses, where he, Aaron, and Hur were on top of the hill at Rephidim while Joshua and the Israelites fought against Amalek.  Victory was won in part by Moses’ trust in God’s strength in and through Aaron and Hur, as well as in His army.  There are times when we must trust God even though our perception both asks the question and falls into uncertainty, “What is This?”, and, “I’m not sure about this.”

The setup: Moses, Aaron, Hur, on top of the hill.  When Moses raised his hands, the Israelites prevailed, when his hands were lowered, the Israelites would experience defeat.  So Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses all day until sundown and the Israelites stood victorious on the field of battle.  What else is at play here though?

In the midst of battle Moses worshiped God.  Moses acknowledged God’s strength and sovereignty and power over him and for the Israelites.  This sounds strangely familiar to an experience we can read about in the book of Matthew, “When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” He *said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.”  (‭‭Matthew‬ ‭8‬:‭23‬-‭26‬)

In Matthew “And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!””

‭‭Matthew‬ 14 we see again the Disciples struggling on the sea in a storm.  This time Jesus was not with them from the beginning, but He shows up at the fourth watch of the night as Matthew records.  Then when Jesus approached, He called out to them, Peter the only one who responded, climbed out onto the water with Jesus.  After the entire exchange is completed, and Jesus and Peter climb into the boat, we read the following verse, “And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!””  (‭‭Matthew‬ ‭14‬:‭33‬)

It seems fairly evident that when we are in the midst of the storm, we must worship God and usher in His overwhelming presence to fight for us as He did for Moses and the Disciples and many others throughout history.

We must worship and acknowledge God with an open heart and love for Him.

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Prayer:

Father God, I thank you that You are my protection, that You are my rock and my shield, my strong fortress that I can run into. I ask for continued protection in Your full armor against the enemy of all enemies. Amen!

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Going Deeper:

Where are you looking [what are you looking to] for your source of truth and protection today?

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When unforeseen circumstances [Battles] arise, where is the first place you look for protection: God, someone, or something else?

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When you stand on the front lines of the Battle, like Moses in Exodus 17, or as the Disciples did in the midst of the storm, are you fully trusting in God’s strength and protection, regardless of what the situation looks and / or feels like?

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