From the snare of the fowler

(Psalms 91:3) “For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.”

There will come a day in the not too distant future when we will all have to give an account to the Lord; no differently to a steward accounting to his master. If I consider that truth and spend too much time here I will soon be walling in self-pity. A life filled with so much apparent failure… BUT GOD!

Did you know that we will all have to give an account to the Lord for what we have done in our lives? Each and every one of us will stand before this great God and have to explain why this or that. The unrepentant sinner will be judged for his sin while the repentant sinner will be judged for his stewardship. What he has done with the free gift of life! Although this is a fact of life and without minimizing this reality, let me rather shift in reflection, let me ponder with gratefulness what I now have in Christ! How much do I take for granted? Far too much I would suggest and for this ingratitude I ask for forgiveness: Thank you Father God for everything you have given me; you are the great deliverer; how often you have delivered me from the snare of the fowler. You Word is a light unto my path; with so much uncertainty surrounding my current job predicament I am persuaded of one thing that all who belong to you will never have to beg bread.  

I suppose there have been times when that truth has been obvious but what of the times when I have been oblivious to the certainty of doom and gloom and yet I have escaped with my life intact! A victim or armed robbery gone awry… there will be numerous times where one day all shall be revealed. 

What comes to mind? I vividly remember as a young boy crossing the street when a voice called out to me saving me from certain death. Whether it came from the heavens or across the street I cannot say, nevertheless my life was spared, with that clear distinctive voice stopping me in my tracks as a truck whizzed pass my face with centimeters to spare. What about the time of my horrific accident, at the tender young age of eighteen, how I survived can only ever be attributed to the grace of God; as the fowler looked to finish his quest, keeping me from ending my life on a note of obedience to the Most High! And what of another time as I lay mangled in a heap after a very serious head-on collision; and yet my God once again coming to my aid as I woke up in hospital with weights dangling from my leg with traction my companion for the next six weeks. How great is my God and yet how foolish I have been! Let no one kid you into believing that we in ourselves determine the future. I would agree that many of the choices we make along life’s journey in reflection should have been avoided, however with that said; it is the brilliance of God with His ingenious ability to turn disasters into valuable lessons. Even the bad choices in life are also designed to mold us and come through and teach us this one truth, “fear God and keep his commandments”.  

I am thankful for having a leg shorter than the other, I am also thankful for having to live with the scourge of HIV, I am thankful for the continuous rescue of my great shepherd… He is forever watching over his sheep and for this I will forever be indebted to the greatest of God’s, the only true God! All hail king Jesus now and forever more!  

May God continue through His loving kindness to graciously teach us obedience in and through His beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ! We may stumble and fall many times but so long as God places a resolve in our hearts to dust the dirt from our knees as we once try again to find His will in that area of our lives which needs tweaking. If we still remain here on earth, hope is our companion; it is available to all who would call upon the name of the Lord… … so “while we have breath we have hope.”

“God delivers his people from the snare of the fowler in two senses. From, and out of. First, he delivers them from the snare-does not let them enter it; and secondly, if they should be caught therein, he delivers them out of it. The first promise is the most precious to some; the second is the best to others.” (C.H.Spurgeon)

Signing off

Tyrone