Rainbow After the Storm
Last night as I was praying I felt the Lord leading
me to
Psalm 23, One of my mother and my mother-in-law's favorite psalms
(Praise God for our faithful heritage!). The words were flowing in my
spirit before I arrived at the scripture in my Bible. I knew the words, but
God wanted me to read them this time.
"...I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff,
they comfort me." Then, here it is..."You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies." Again, "You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies." The words had new meaning each
time...God Himself is preparing His abundant table before us in the presence
of our enemies. Our ultimate enemy may be working overtime with his flaming
arrows flying at us seemingly non-stop with health issues, distractions from
the world, conflicts within, conflicts without...BUT... then I looked at the
NIV text notes:
'God is pictured as caring for my needs in the midst of the evil forces
that attempt to destroy my life and soul.' The notes also referenced
Romans 8:31-39, verse 37: "...in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us." ....MORE THAN CONQUERORS!
The text note explained: The entire phrase 'we are
more than conquerors' is just one word in Greek (hupernikomen). "Huper"
means 'over, above'. In Latin it means 'super'. So Paul is saying here that
we are not just barely getting by in these trials. In Christ we are
"overwhelmingly - over and above" more than conquerors, WE ARE SUPER
CONQUERORS! Praise God! The victory is ours!
But that's not all...back to
Psalm 23. "You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows." My
text notes here explained that in the Hebrew 'my cup overflows' is not a
verb, but a noun meaning 'an abundant drink'. What David is talking about
here is a 'shepherd's cup'. On the road to Bethlehem is a well with a
shepherds cup. A shepherd's cup is a large stone hollowed out next to the
well. It holds 30 or 40 gallons of water for the sheep. 30 or 40 gallons of
water and this cup is OVERFLOWING!
Through these trials God is preparing our table in front of our enemies to
abundantly bless us more than we can contain! Praise God! Only He can send
the rainbow in the midst of storm!
What an incredible word of encouragement!
Kristy McCabe