There are moments we all face when we are too small, too weak, life is too hard, our adversaries are too great, and the weight of it all threatens to crush us to absolute dust if we continue to hold it up for even one more spare second. In those moments, there is no yesterday, and there is certainly no tomorrow. Our head seems to be able to only echo back the pain that reverberates through our poor broken heart. Somewhere inside is a cry for help, but the cry falls upon no one’s ears in particular. We are the helpless child, being circled by a pack of ravenous wolves. With nowhere to turn and no deliverance in sight, we crumble to the ground and stay there. Our friends can’t help us, and our family is powerless to stop the onslaught that is moments away from happening. For a brief split-second, we raise our eyes just long enough to stare into the blank space where God was supposed to be and internally cry out, not a cry for help, but a cry of accusation: why do you not come when you said you would? Alone, and forsaken, our eyes shut and return downward, as we desperately fight to hold back the tears from our eyes that have already flooded our heart.

But unbeknownst to us and to our hearts that have already begun to lose hope, is that God has not left us. Just outside of our eyesight, he stands there building an invisible wall between us and our predators. So that although we can see them, and they us, we will not be destroyed. He stands there, stretching out his hand to stay the enemy, to forbid them from pouncing. All the while, he has started to speak into our hearts the life-giving words of redemption. Before us, he has placed armor and a blazing sword for us to use. He wants us to fight the enemy; not because he is too weak to do it himself, but because he wants to make us stronger through the trials of battle. Unfortunately for many of us, we are not strong enough to bear the armor and shield. We do not have enough practice with the sword to effectively drive the enemy back. As we struggle to wield these heavy things, our vision begins to blur and we again lose hope. Under the strain of the foreign objects, we fall to the ground, struggling to hold consciousness of our surroundings.

And it is at this moment that the armor is taken off of us. He dons it himself. Wielding the sword that he himself crafted with an ease that unnerves the enemy, he walks forward to defend us. To defend those who cannot defend themselves. To defend those who cry out to him. To defend his beloved. In fear, the enemy shakes and tries to scatter before he can reach them, but he calls out to them, commanding them to stay right where they are. The wolves whimper and cower before him, begging for their wretched existence. He looks back at us once more. There we lie, crumbled on the ground in exhaustion and frozen by fear. His gaze breaks as his eyes trail back to our enemy, our cause of persecution, and fury wells up within him so great that the very ground threatens to explode. In his own name, and for the sake of his beloved, he lays waste to the enemy. He defends us, because we cannot defend ourselves. He defends us, because we cry out to him. He defends us, because we are his beloved.

But now, this is what the LORD says—
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.

For I am the LORD, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
Cush and Seba in your stead.

Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give men in exchange for you,
and people in exchange for your life.

Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
I will bring your children from the east
and gather you from the west.

I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth-

everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”

Isaiah 43:1-7
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“Everyone needs a Savior, a love that’s never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness, the kind that’s of the Savior
the hope of nations

Savior, he can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save”

Hillsong United – “Mighty To Save”