Look closely again at verse two—“I will SAY of the Lord…” It is not enough to think it. God not only wants you to know that He is your refuge; He wants you to SAY it. This Psalm gives you the words to say about how much you see Him as your safe place. With believing comes security, but with speaking comes authority. God wants to hear that you trust Him; merely thinking it is not enough to stop an attack. There is something about saying it that releases power in the unseen realm. We answer back to God what He says to us in the first verse; there is power in saying His Word back to Him. Joel 3:10, says “Let the weak say, ‘I am a mighty man.’” Circle the word say. Over and over we find great men of God like David, Joshua, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego declaring their confessions of faith aloud in dangerous situations. Notice what begins to happen on the inside when you say, “Lord, You are my refuge. You are my fortress. You are my Lord and my God. It is in You that I put my total trust.” The more we say it aloud, the more confident we become in His protection.
Watch What You Say Having two jobs is chaotic to say the least. On this particular day I got off at Doc’s Pharmacy but had to be at Chick-Fil-A at exactly the same time! I had to drive across town, thinking aloud to myself--I’m going to be late, like you’re just going to have to deal with it, because I don’t get off till 5 and I’m supposed to be there at 5! So I was going a little bit faster than I should, because I was in a hurry, trying to get there. I didn’t want to be late. To make it worse, I was driving and trying to change uniforms at the same time. It’s not a good idea. You shouldn’t try it. Suddenly, there was someone a couple cars in front of me, who had randomly decided that they were going to slow way, way down and make a right turn into some parking lot. Each car behind them had to take drastic action to try and stop in time. The car in front of me slammed on their brakes. I slammed on my brakes, pushing the petal into the carpet and I felt my car begin to skid. I was about to wreck. In desperation I said, “s***, s***, s***!” I said it, and I said it out loud. It’s not very good, you shouldn’t say it. My life didn’t pass before me, but suddenly it flooded my mind reminding me of something that happened to a friend of mine... Several years ago one of my friends was traveling back home with some companions when a semi-truck swerved into their lane. Right before the head-on collision they screamed, and instead of saying a choice word, all four yelled, “Jesus!”; and instantly, closed their eyes. To their surprise the semi had completely missed them and was now in a ditch directly behind them. No one had been hurt. But I hadn’t screamed Jesus, I said something much worse…and as it was coming out of my mouth I was thinking, “I’m going to have a wreck, I’m going to get in a collision, and my car’s going to be totaled.” Then, it was like the Lord reminded me, “That word is not going to do you any good, Rachel.” It doesn’t have any power whatsoever; it can even have the opposite effect. Right then I decided I was going to say “Jesus!” 3 times in a row. “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! I’m sorry and I repent.” And when I did my car stopped just in time. I had been skidding on the street and then, all of a sudden, I stopped. Unexplainbly stopped—when there was no way to avoid the wreck. I was so scared I started shaking. But I was okay. No wreck, no injuries, nothing, Jesus protected me even when I had just messed up.” —Rachel Terry Your Words Have Power Many people believe that words are benign and have no real power to them. However, if you will say to yourself aloud, “I trust you God,” you will feel a surge of confidence. On the contrary, if you say aloud to yourself, “Nothing ever works for me,” then you feel your confidence lag. Speaking your trust out loud is one of the best things you can do to bolster your confidence. When you speak God’s Word to your problems, you are not convincing God; you are convincing yourself. You are inviting God’s Word to jump off the page and come to pass for you personally. God’s Word is true 100 percent of the time. In Proverbs 18:21, we read: Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Speak Life!
2 Comments
|