Our Shield
We read chapters 15-18 in Genesis today and from the very first verse we hear the Lord is our shield and our reward. So often have I bowed before the Lord seeking His protection. Asking Him to put a hedge around me without acknowledging that He is the shield. He is the only protection any of us need. But we must think about how a shield works. We must position the shield in front of or above us. I think we often suffer harm because we place the Lord, our shield, beneath us. We sit upon it as if it were some sort of child’s sled. A toy which we show no reverence for. When we are not keeping the Lord in His appointed position, it is not unusual for the shield to not protect us from the incoming dangers of this life.
So we struggle and then we come back to the Lord seeking He provides us with a reward. A reward? My first question is – for what shall we be rewarded? We are an unfaithful, immoral group who deserves punishment but receives grace. Yet we presume upon the Lord that we somehow deserve a reward?
We mistakenly expect that this reward would be some material gain, a victory, or increased power. These are idols we have created in our own minds. This opening verse tells us God is the reward. We do not deserve Him, but He assures us He is our reward. This He is. When we have God, we need nothing else. There is nothing more.
Faith
In verse 6, we read that Abram believed the Lord. This is righteousness. It is not our works. We could do no works if God had not provided us the ability to do them. We will only be measured by our faith.
Yet we are often like Sarah in verse 18:15 in that even though we do wrong against the Lord, we think somehow He doesn’t know. We try to lie about what we did. When our lies are discovered, we, like Abraham, attempt to negotiate with the Lord. We must negotiate with ourselves.
God has given us the most lenient of offers. All He asks is for our faith. We claim we have faith but continue to trust in our bank accounts, our employers, and doctors to provide us with safety and security. For over fifteen years, I took a statin drug to avoid having a heart attack. I still had one. None of these things means anything to the Lord. Genuine faith is trusting only in the Lord for His provision and protection.
Trust
When we do this, we have no reason to lie to Him. He knows where our passions lie. When our hearts are not fully trusting in God, we wear ourselves out trusting in our own labors. People may ask why we are not taking part in worship or ministries, and we claim we don’t have the capacity with our schedules. This is like Sarah laughing at God. He knows how much time we have and that the only reason we are too busy is that we have failed to trust His word.
