ponderglobecir

  Jesus taught us to pray… “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…”

  Can/Does God deliver us from evil?  Read Genesis 20:1-6 carefully, especially verse 6, then think with me.

    From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3  But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.”

Like me, you may need to read verse 6 again… slowly.  Think… God prevented the king from sinning!  God kept the king from doing what he otherwise would have done had God not stopped him!  Wow…

Put those thoughts in a New Testament context from Jude 24-25…

   Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Because these kinds of things are kept in the secret knowledge and wisdom of God, none of us knows how many times God protected us from our own stupidity… foolilshness… and ignorance.  We don’t know the number of times that God intervened in our lives to prevent us from doing what we otherwise would have done… namely to sin against Him.  I am thankful God has the power to do that!  I am glad He prevents us from sinning at times!

How awesome is that?!  How awesome is God?!!

I don’t know what else to do with these thoughts but to praise… honor… and glorify such a wonderful, loving, merciful, and compassionate God.  Praise be to God for who He is!

Jesus taught us to pray a certain way, but how many times have we really contemplated that God actually answers that prayer?  We may find the answer to that question in eternity…