I can remember well the scene. I was in the sixth grade, and we were moving from West Virginia to Florida. It was Winter, and cold in the West Virginia mountains as we traveled down a two-lane road pulling a U-Haul trailer. The roads were icy and slippery, and the trailer and wind were making our car slide into the oncoming lane of traffic. We were coming up a mountain and our car and trailer were sliding around and my father was fighting to get them back into the right lane. Just seconds after he got them back in the right lane, a semi-truck came flying over the top of the mountain and down the road past us. If it had been there a few seconds sooner, we’d have all been killed or seriously injured as we would have been directly in its path.
David wrote in Psalm 4:8, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” God alone is the one who keeps us safe. I can tell several other stories like the one above about how God has kept me and members of my family safe, and I’m sure most of you reading this can share incidents as well. When we “barely” escape a situation with our lives, it’s NOT by “chance” or “luck” that this happens, it’s by God’s mercy.
Psalm 34:7 tells us, “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them.” And in Psalm 91:14, “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name” God is in COMPLETE control of EVERYTHING that happens in our lives. If we could actually know ALL of the times God has protected us from harm, from disaster, and from trouble – we’d trust Him even more, and we would certainly seek to please Him more.
“In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”