Look up: Spared by the Lord

Intro:
On vacation in high school I got the thrill of playing in a flash flood. If you know anything about flash floods then you are thinking I am relatively stupid.

A flash flood is a very dangerous water event ... I know that now! As a teen, it looked really fun. I never understood why my dad was so sacred and even angry with me until the next morning.

I got woken up early by my dad. He wanted to show me something. What I saw introduced me to fear. The flash flood was long over. The path the water took looked like a war field. Buried in nearly 5 feet of mud and barely cresting the surface were 2 silver tubes. The flood I was playing in had pushed an 18 wheeler off the road and buried it. The silver tubes were the exhaust pipes!

Glad to be alive today!

Read:
Psalm 124
A song of ascents. Of David.
1. If the LORD had not been on our side—
let Israel say-
2. if the LORD had not been on our side
when men attacked us,

3. when their anger flared against us,
they would have swallowed us alive;

4. the flood would have engulfed us,
the torrent would have swept over us,

5. the raging waters
would have swept us away.

6. Praise be to the LORD,
who has not let us be torn by their teeth.

7. We have escaped like a bird
out of the fowler's snare;
the snare has been broken,
and we have escaped.

8. Our help is in the name of the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

Think:
If you are alive to read this then you have known more protection in your life then you might realize. If the Lord had not been on our side, let us say it, if the Lord had not been on our side we would have been swept away by now.

The Psalmist likens the hatred and opposition of his enemies like a flash flood. Listen to the words:
1. Swallowed alive (verse 3)
2. Engulfed by a flood (verse 4)
3. Swept by a torrent (verse 4)
4. Swept away by raging waters (verse 5)

Have you ever been through the ire and hatred of someone? Feels like being swept away by raging waters.

Yet, the Psalmist recognized that he was still alive and that by the hand of God. If the Lord had not been on our side, let us say it, if the Lord had not been on our side we would have been swept away by now.

Do you have any idea of what you have been saved from and are saved from on a daily basis? Accidents. Cancer. War. Attack. Strife. The fiery darts of the devil. This list is endless. The fact that you are alive means that God is with you and has work for you to still do. If and when you do face these things God will strengthen you to meet the challenge and take you safely home in the end.

Do:
If the Lord had not been on our side, let us say it, if the Lord had not been on our side we would have been swept away by now. Can you look back and see that you have been spared? It is so easy to complain that we are being attacked or that people don't like us or that people are angry with us.

But, if they did these things to Jesus why do we think we are immune for struggle?

We do not serve ourselves well to complain about the difficulties in our lives and fail to see all that we have been spared of by the Lord. Can we turn compaining into praise today?

If the Lord had not been on our side, let us say it, if the Lord had not been on our side we would have been swept away by now.

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