I've Got Your Back

Has God ever asked you to do something that goes against every fiber of your being?  Has he asked you to do something that brought fear to you if done in your own power?  Perhaps there is fear even when you are relying on His power.  When you are done completing what he has asked of you, have you wondered if you really heard right?  These are hard times to go through, times when faith really needs to take hold of your heart.  We recently have been in a situation like this where God asked us to do something that was very difficult and has gone against how I was brought up.  But you know what? I am not a child anymore.  I am an adult and a mature Christian.  Before we moved to Mexico as full time missionaries, someone gave our family verses from Joshua 1.  My verse was Joshua 1:9 which says, "Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."  Once completing the task that God put before us, I became very discouraged and there has been fear with it also.  I wasn't looking at it through the eyes of what God had asked but through my own eyes which worry more about how someone may think of me.  This morning while praying, God brought this verse back to me.  I decided to look up some cross references to this verse and Deuteronomy 31:8 came up which says, "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."  We need to realize that when God asks us to do something, He doesn't just ask us to do it and then leave us on our own.  He goes before us.

We recently watched the movie The Blind Side.  If you haven't seen it, it is worth seeing.  One of the lines I really like in the movie is, "I've got your back."  This is said by a giant 6'6" teenager to Sandra Bullock who plays a woman who takes this young man in.  They are in a bad section of town and she moves close to him and says something like, "You will protect me, right?"  Then he says, "Don't worry, I've got your back."   When God gives us an assignment, He's got our backs.  He is guarding us and he is our fortress, our protection.  Psalm 118:6 says, "The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"  Over the past few years, God has been delivering my of my fear of man or my people pleasing side.  My side that says, that person might not like me if I say this or do that.  Is man who I am to fear?  No, I am not to fear man but to fear God.  If God tells me to do something and I don't do it, then I should be afraid.  Don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean that I don't care about other's feelings because I certainly do, sometimes too much. 

I want to encourage you to follow whatever God has given you to do, whether it be at work, home, school, or in your community.  God has your back and if He has given you an assignment, He will go with you and never leave you nor forsake you.  He is God, He is faithful and He is good.  When I stand before Him I want to be able to say that I completed the assignment he gave me to do.  I didn't shrink back because of fear, but with Him, I went forward with courage.  I want to encourage you to do the hard things in life., to follow God no matter what.