Psalm 118:5-6 English Standard Version

5 Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free.

6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?

Yesterday I asked the question why pain and today the Lord answers us.

Every spiritual question has an answer in the bible. If we cannot find it for ourselves, seek the Lord and He will reveal it to you.

How I know this is by experience.

What freedom did I find in Christ?

He set me free from a vain imagination.

Suddenly we see that being set free is not just about our eternal salvation which will not come until we leave this world. We are also set free from old habits, old mindsets, old natures that no longer serve us as we serve our Lord.

Why did I say vain imaginations? Because of my experience. What it means to us at any moment is relatable to our own experiences. It does not make our thoughts right or wrong. It is only meaningful because of our experiences.

No one has the right to tell you that you are wrong except your Lord.

This is why we need to call on the Lord for answers to our current dilemmas. It does not matter the problem, with ourselves or with the world. He is the Lord of all things. He has power and influence over everything.

That fact does not mean He will give in to our desires. He loves us and will put everything in context to the will of the Father. We must remember what He has said to us about suffering for His sake and stop making it all about us.

Has God shown us His power over events in the world? We don’t always get to see His will right away. Many times it is revealed in the results of the actions He takes.

Just because I do not see it does not make it any less gracious in nature. Luck doesn’t have a say in what God does. The Word tells us He is at work around us all the time. 

Psalm 26:3 English Standard Version (ESV) For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.

Exodus 3:6 English Standard Version (ESV) And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Nothing in Exodus 3 indicates what Moses did in that moment beyond hiding his face from God because of fear. The first impulse is to believe that Moses took off his sandals because he feared God at that moment. He was not told what to do with those sandals. There was no instruction to cast them back down the mountain or hide them.

If I place myself in that moment I can see how I might act but that is only my idea. I am not Moses, and Moses might have done something else. What is important about the sandals is not what Moses did but what I might do in that situation. 

Finding those sandals in my hands, fearing to even look at the face of God, what was meant to protect my feet are now used to shield my face from God. That is me, in a moment of understanding, this is how things changed when I came before God.

In the Garden Adam and Eve did not have sandals because there were no thorns or thistles to hurt them. It was not until they were ejected from the garden that they needed to protect their feet.

In my mind I see that if and when God releases me from His presence and I go back out into the world, I will need those sandals to protect my feet. I would not throw them away.

Now I see the sandals as things that are made by man to protect our walk in the world. Our feet are sensitive and our first point of contact in the world. What have we bought or made to protect ourselves as we make our way in the world? Remember the footwear is not provided by God, it is a thing of our own choosing.

Since this is a spiritual insight, then what do the sandals now represent as protective mechanisms to hide our pain?

Why pain? Because the thorns and thistles of the world are meant to cause us pain.