"Every good and perfect gift is from above..." James 1:17

Sunday, October 25, 2015

The Safest Place

October 25, 2015—The sermon at church (North Highlands Assembly of God, Columbus, GA) today was titled “Trust:  When I am afraid, I will trust!”  The scripture reference was Psalm 56: 3-4.  Which says, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.  In God, whose word I praise—in God I trust and am not afraid.  What can mere mortals do to me?”  After reviewing the sermon outline before the service, I looked these verses up and remembered immediately how God spoke to me with these verses before my deployment to Iraq in 2005.  With these verses, he comforted me and helped me to put my trust in him throughout the dangers and fear I was sure to face.  I am no war hero and I know many others have experience in much more danger in war than I have but I hope you will be able to understand how God can grant you courage to overcome any fear through the short story below.
                I deployed to Iraq in August of 2005 and returned in February of 2006.  During this period, the counterinsurgency fight was raging and the insurgents’ most successful weapon against the coalition forces was the “roadside bomb.”  This bomb was an improvised explosive device (IED) placed along roads to engage coalition forces whether primed for victim initiation (triggered by the targeted vehicle or individual) or command initiation (triggered by the insurgents).  I drove a HMMWV for my platoon so you can imagine that having one of these explode on my vehicle or one in my platoon was a concern.  Since we conducted most of our operations at night, and relied on speed, surprise, and violence of action to give us a tactical advantage over our enemy, we never moved slowly enough to find IEDs along our routes.  This made us somewhat vulnerable to that threat.
                Before our first mission, members of my platoon began a practice in faith that continued through the entire deployment—we prayed together before loading up for each mission.  We not only prayed for our safety, we prayed that God would grant us victory over our enemies in the same manner that David prayed in Psalm 56 and many other psalms as well for many different situations.  I also know that there were many others on the home front that were praying with us.  I can also a test that I was never alone when I prayed.  There was always at least one other member of my platoon or a dozen members.  In Matthew 18:19-20, Jesus said, ‘Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.  For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.’  Those prayers of faith that God is for us and not against us gave us the courage to face dangers and fears over which we had little control.  Another verse that brought us confidence in the power of God is James 5:16, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”  When we departed the safety of our bases to confront the enemy, we were already the victors.
                About halfway through that deployment, I received a letter from a faithful, praying woman, Laura Eitland, from my home church in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania—Caring Community Church of God.  In the letter, she referenced the passage from 2 Kings 6 where Elisha told his servant to not be afraid of the Aramean army that was surrounding the city.

‘Go, find out where he is,’ the king, [Aramean king] ordered, ‘so I can send men and capture him, [Elisha].’  The report came back:  ‘He is in Dothan.’  Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there.  They went by night and surrounded the city.
                When the servant of [Elisha,] the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city.  ‘Oh no, my lord!  What shall we do?’ the servant asked.
                ‘Don’t be afraid,’ [Elisha,] the prophet answered.  ‘Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’
                And Elisha prayed, ‘Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.’  Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
2 Kings 6:13-17
(Read 2 Kings 6: 8-23 for the full story)

This passage helped me to visualize the awesome power of God that was protecting us and going forth before us to grant us the victory we asked for.  I was comforted by the image in my mind of “chariots of fire” from the armies of God protecting the flanks of our convoys and moving out ahead of us to clear the way of any IEDs and to succumb our enemies to our will before we ever arrived on site.
Throughout six months of combat operations in Iraq where we conducted over 80 direct action raids on known and suspected insurgent locations, we did not hit one IED.  That is not a coincidence.  During a period where that was the number one killer of coalition forces and which we conducted missions with the sole objective to counter the IED threat, we were not exposed to even one.  Not: ‘we hit several but were fortunate to not have any casualties.’  No!  We did not even hit one.  Not one!  My faith tells me that the “chariots of fire” solved that problem for us.  (Thank you, Laura, for praying that Scripture over us and giving me that perspective of the power of God.)
I hope as you read this short story that you have gained confidence in your faith in God and his mighty power.  We cannot comprehend his power and so that inability to comprehend leads us to lack confidence in it.  I believe he just wants us to take that small step of faith in trusting in him.  That is all he is waiting on to pour out his power in our lives.  He just wants us to trust him.  Like we trust in any intimate relationship whether it is with our spouse or a close friend or family member, he wants our trust.  However, to trust, there must be something that we cannot control.  We all have many things that we cannot control.  He wants to take that control for us.  First, we must trust him.
Prior to that deployment to Iraq, I made a poster board with all the men of my platoon on it and left it with my church who committed to praying for the platoon as a whole and each individual.  In the center of the poster, I wrote a quote from an anonymous source that I saw in an Our Daily Bread devotional months before.  The quote was this:  ‘The safest place to be is not in the absence of danger, but in the will of God.’  That is where I want to be.
 
-Posted by Jordan