Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
A Disturbing Discovery
There was a time that we came home one night—I'm not sure where we were—but we came home to our front door being wide open and a light being on upstairs. No one in the car remembered us leaving the door open or a light on, so it was a bit disturbing. I made sure my family stayed outside, and I went inside and checked every nook and cranny of our house, making sure it was safe. There was nothing there. We still don't know what happened. We assume we just forgot that we left the door open, the light on.
Imagine if you had personal security that you had all the time—that somebody went in front of you, that they made sure to check out everything before you walked into it. How amazing would that be, that wherever you went, you knew you were protected because they went before you? That's the lens I would love to have.
Our Verse of the Day is Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 8. "Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; He will neither fail you nor abandon you."
When Trust Is Tested
Think about that illustration of a security detail going out in front of you and ahead of you, making sure you're protected. If they do that and you walk into a place and something bad happens to you, guess what? That trust you have for that security detail going before you is damaged. Using that same lens, when we talk about God going before us and something bad happens to us, what lens do we have when we consider that reality in our life?
The powerful thing—it'd be easy for me to just keep it light and fluffy and say, yeah, God's going before us, He'll never forsake us. We deal with the reality of bad things happening to us, and we start questioning, Lord, what's going on? I thought You went before me. I thought You were here to protect me. That's why the powerful elements of this verse go beyond just Him going before us. The key is not what makes it through to us as God goes before us. The key is that He is with you. He will not fail you. He will not abandon you.
Why Does He Allow It?
We still may ask the question: why does He allow these things to get through? If He's going before, why does He allow these things to make it through? I'd love to refer to a passage—Judges chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. I encourage you to look it up yourself, but it's a very unique passage of Scripture, because it says that God allowed certain remnants of the enemies of Israel to stay for the purpose of the next generation learning to fight and defend themselves, to grow in strength. They learned how to fight the battle.
When we're talking spiritually, when God allows things to come through as He's gone before us, He is always with us. He'll not fail us or forsake us. When the bad things start to happen, know that it's there for one of two reasons—you can look at this all throughout Scripture. One is to strengthen us, and yes, sometimes that is God causing discipline because of something we've done in our lives. Or, on the other side, it's to cause Him to be glorified to others. Those are the two things all throughout Scripture.
Resting in His Presence
The powerful thing, on both sides, is that we know if God goes before us, whatever comes through is for our good and for His glory. When it makes its way through, because He's gone before, and to rest in, Lord, You allowed this bad thing to come through to me, and now I'm going to abandon you because now there's something wrong with God. No—He actually allowed this to come through to either strengthen us or to bring Him glory.
Through it, the world can see that God has not failed us or abandoned us through the bad things that come our way, and that He wants to walk with us through it. We have a Shepherd that the world does not have, and they're able to see something different in us as we allow God to go before us.
Knowing this, we can rest even in the midst of what makes it through. God will not fail you or abandon you. Live in His presence today.
