I reluctantly left the sunshine behind me and followed the footpath down under the shadow of trees. To my right was a wire fence covered in creeping undergrowth beyond which was woodland. On my left the trees were tall and overhanging the path blocking out the light.
I was on my way to the garden centre to buy chicory seeds and as I didn't have the car that day the only way was through this footpath or to walk on the busy main road where there was no pavement.
'Lord, keep me safe', I silently pray as the sound of traffic dulls and I become more conscious of my unease and aloneness.
As the path rounds a small bend I see tree stumps and trodden grass. The fence is broken and bent, the undergrowth pushed aside.
'Lord, protect me, be round about me, keep me from harm', I continue to pray. My eyes dart from side to side looking for any sign of figures hiding behind the trees, and I think - as I always do when I walk through here - that it would be a likely hangout spot for those who don't want to be seen.
I see no one to cause me alarm and ahead of me the path will soon be opening into sunshine and eventually returning to alongside the main road. I muse how in times of fear or concern we want to be close to the Lord. We are as young children who are alarmed when they see a dog coming and cling to their parent' s hand, pressing close to them, shrinking from the animal.
'Why don't we always want to be so close to our Saviour?' I sadly wonder. I thought about the previous day when I had not spent my time as wisely as I would have liked, and wondered if others have such deep regrets. 'Why hadn't I prayed for the Lord to protect me then from the temptations which abound around us?'
It seems that so often we only pray when we feel or see our need or danger, and yet we know that the devil and his angels are active all the time.
The Apostle Peter warns us, 'Be sober, be vigilant: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour' (1 Peter 5:8) And yet, because we do not literally see him perhaps we often forget our danger and forget to pray. 'Pray without ceasing' the Apostle Paul exhorts us (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Not just when we see or fear danger, but when all looks calm and peaceful and we forget our enemy.
And then I think how my own imagination is creating my unease - and is perhaps being fueled by suggestions from the adversary. Although we are not to be foolish and take presumptuous risks, our own nature can exacerbate our perception of risks and fear. And we dwell on that rather than telling the Lord and remembering who He is - how we have no need to fear if we trust him.
May the Lord help us to remember to keep praying to him throughout the day to be a wall round about us, to deliver us from evil and lead us not into temptation. To cast 'down imaginations' and bring 'into captivity every thought' (2 Corinthians 5: 5), that we might prove what Isaiah wrote,' Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee' (Isaiah 26:3).
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Enjoyed this. It's so easy to expect God to just be there when we need him and the rest of the time carry on as if he doesn't exist. God is so patient and long suffering with us and he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
ReplyDeleteSo true Mandy!
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