“The Lord God is a sun and a shield” (Psalm 84:11).
The sun provides light, heat, and energy, and it promotes growth. A shield provides safety and protection. Describing God as a sun and a shield is appropriate because he provides and protects.
However, someone reading this is thinking, “God is not much of a provider because I still do not have what I need!” Others are wondering, “If God is such a great protector, why am I going through all this trouble?” Is scripture wrong? No, but we need to understand how God provides and protects.
First, God provides daily, not all at once. Think about the Israelites during the Exodus. God provided food in the form of manna, but that manna had to be collected every day (Exodus 16:4-5). It was not able to be stored. The blessing came one day at a time.
Similarly, it is unlikely that God will unload the spiritual blessing dump truck on you. Like so many before us such as Noah, Abraham, Joseph and even the apostles, we must wait on God’s timing. It is not that God cannot provide. He just has not yet.
Secondly, God protects us “in” our troubles, not “from” them. A shield does not stop the arrows from flying, rather, it keeps you safe from their harm. God never said that he would prevent trouble from happening. In fact, Jesus said the exact opposite. “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). God’s protection is about peace within the trouble, not a complete absence of difficult events.
The end goal of God’s provision and protection is not that we would have a magic formula to make life easy but that we would learn to trust him. He wants us to live today and to stop brooding over the past or fretting about the future. He is watching. He knows us. He has a plan. Nothing is out of control.
God is providing and protecting! Trust that for your strength today.
“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!” (Psalm 118:24)
I used to have a Wayne Gretzky rookie card. However, when I was 12 years old I did not like Wayne Gretzky, so I traded the card to my brother. A few years ago, I remembered that incident, so I went looking for the card. Sure enough, there is was in a box in my mom’s basement. Now here is the thing: even in bad shape, Gretzky rookie cards sell for around $250. Needless to say, that was not a good trade on my part. I simply did not recognize what I had and so I traded away something valuable for something with almost no value at all. With that in mind, notice how the letter to the Galatians starts: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which...
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