January 25: 2 Chronicles 20:1-12
Remembering WHAT GOD HAS DONE (verse 7)
Remembering the ways God has acted in our behalf in the past encourages us to trust Him in the present situation.
Jehoshaphat recalls how God had been faithful to His people in giving them the land that He had promised them. This included miraculous interventions by God on their behalf. God had driven out the wicked inhabitants of the land and had given the land to Abraham’s descendants as He had promised. This encouragement was a reminder that God would also be faithful to help them keep the land.
When I was a young boy in my early teens, our family lived where plum trees lined both sides of the road beside our house. My brother and I had acquired slingshots and were adept at using them. One afternoon he and I were playing, he on one side of the road and I on the other. We were taking shots at one another, using the green plums that were readily available. As the shots landed, they would produce a sharp sting on our bodies, sometimes leaving lingering whelps. I remember bending down to pick up a plum and reload my sling. As I stood up to take my shot, my brother had just launched a plum toward me. The timing of the shot landed the plum squarely into my left eye. The pressure of the shot caused a split in the rear of my eyeball. It started filling up with fluid.
I spent two weeks, one in the hospital and another at home, flat on my back with both eyes covered. I was wedged between pillows and was not allowed to turn my head to either side. Because I could not see, I had to have constant attention. I could not lift my head to eat. The doctors were concerned that I might lose sight in that eye. When the eye patches were removed, I discovered that I could still see and my sight in my left eye was barely diminished. The consistent faithful prayers of family and friends had been answered.
My mother told me about an incident that happened when I was an infant. I happened to be allergic to various forms of milk that they sought to give me. One evening I stopped breathing and started turning blue. While my mother sought help, my grandmother picked me up and cradled and rocked me on her breast, praying as earnestly as she knew how. I started breathing and God spared me.
Really, there were many times I came close to death. Did I mention that time a rattlesnake bit me on the top of my boot, or the time I almost reached into a feed sack to find a six-foot rattlesnake, or the time a water moccasin chased me?
Why recall these events? They are reminders that God is faithful and answers prayer. They are reminders that my life is in His hands, and I can trust Him to care for me.
REVDANS 