Fences

Today I received another excellent post from Stephen Altrogge over at The Blazing Center and it bears repeating, as do many of his posts.

He writes:

PLEASE FENCE ME IN

I’ve been rereading The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel, and this morning he reminded me that we should be grateful for God’s providence in delivering us from sin and temptation.

Sometimes God gives us an affliction to prevent us from sinning. He gave Paul an excruciating “thorn in the flesh” to keep him from pride.

Sometimes he sends a brother or sister to rescue us from doing something foolish, like when he sent Abigail to stop David from rashly killing her idiot husband Nabal.

Sometimes the Spirit himself speaks to us to avert us from derailing. When I was single, an attractive unbeliever invited me to go horseback riding and hang out with her at her home. But the Spirit spoke the verse, “Do not go near the door of her house” (PR 5.8) to my heart, and mercifully, I declined. God spared me from potential disaster.

Sometimes God withholds wealth or success because of the many temptations they can bring. Nothing like a rebellious child to keep us from congratulating ourselves on our parenting. Nothing like being needy to keep us from self-sufficiency.

We have no idea of the thousands of times God has spared us from falling into the devil’s snares. Let’s spend a few minutes today thanking Jesus for his providence that hems and hedges us in and keeps us from the pit of destruction.