MY ARMOR AND PROTECTION
Psalm 91:4 NLT
His faithful promises are your armor and protection!
I have a true confession to make. If it were not for the protective power and impact of God’s faithful promises I would be a broken and ruined man. A mental and emotional mess. God’s promises have kept me from depression, sustained my sanity, given me strength in my weariness, and kept me from making terrible, devastating life choices. My Christian journey has been filled with difficulties, heartaches, trials, and tribulations that could have certainly broken a person into pieces.
Time and again, God has spoken to me, in a deeply personal way through specific promises in the sacred Scriptures. They became the fixation of my faith, the focus of my hope, and my mental, emotional anchor. They’ve literally kept me from losing my mind, and falling apart completely. Those faithful promises of God kept me from taking serious life matters into my own hands, which in so doing would have brought catastrophic consequences into my life and my marriage.
How many times I have wanted to exact revenge on those who have inflicted grave injustices on my life. But remembering God’s promise to me, that I can overcome their evil by doing good, and as a result of God himself promising that He will pour out His vengeance on my behalf, has calmed my mind, strengthened my emotions, and directed my life steps into something productive and eternal. It has literally protected and saved my life.
I remember 4 years ago, passing through a catastrophic ordeal. It felt as if it would completely crush me. It felt as though I was being tormented to death as my whole life was being deliberately, maliciously destroyed. One morning in my anguish God spoke to me with this promise, “I have called you back from the ends of the earth so you can serve me. For I have chosen you and will not throw you away!“
Every single day, over and over again for months, I read and reread that promise, I have chosen you and will not throw you away. I put all my hope, all my trust in that promise from God, and lo and behold He has not thrown me away, even though so many others have, completely. That promise kept me from losing my mind. It was my armor against the tormenting realities being unleashed on me.
I remember during this same ordeal, thinking out loud, “Well Lord, you say you won’t throw me away, but how am I going to survive and take care of my wife?” God spoke to me once again, through His faithful promise, just as He did to Abraham, “This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life, who calls into existence what didn’t exist before!”
This promise kept me from total despair, gave me the hope to press forward in the dark, and lo and behold, God brought me back from the dead, and called into being a full-time ministry that did not exist before!
Time and time again in my life, God has given me his faithful promises that have been a protective armor over my life. They have given me hope, kept me from a complete nervous breakdown, and revived my soul.
I will never forget the ordeal Kathy and I went through trying to get married. It was an excruciating ordeal. It felt utterly hopeless. God gave us this amazing promise. I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord.
We now had God’s assurance that in this “land of the living people”, we would see God’s goodness, allowing us to be married. So keep strong, take courage of heart, and wait for God to bring it about. He did just that.
Time and time again, God’s faithful promises have kept us from complete and total despair. They have been our armor and protection against crushing, brutal, gut-wrenching ordeals and overwhelming circumstances.
Dear friends, let me ask you sincerely, have you made God’s faithful promises your armor and protection? Do you have any specific promises from God that you are clinging to right now? I urge you today, get some, or life will break you, and you will slowly lose your mental and emotional well-being, and eventually lose your way in life.
Psalm 119:49-50 NLT
Remember your promise to me, for it is my only hope. Your promise revives me; it comforts me in all my troubles.
Helping you become a Strong Disciple,
Because of Jesus,
Pastor Mark Darling
