In Your Arms

He will cover you with his feathers.  He will shelter you with his wings.  His faithful promises are your armor and protection.

Psalm 91:4



Listen!  The LORD's arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call.

Isaiah 59:1




What do you turn to when you're in distress?  Maybe you turn to your family or friends.  Maybe you turn to a hobby to distract yourself (such as writing or drawing).  Maybe you turn to some bad coping skills (such as cutting for me), or even isolation.  I know for me, I tend to isolate myself - A LOT.  It's one thing to have some alone time for a little bit to calm down and get your thoughts together; but when you spend all day every day laying in bed or sitting on the couch by yourself, then you may be isolating too much.  What if we turned to God in our distress though?  What would that look like? 

Well, for one thing, he promises to never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).  Have abandonment issues (I do)?  Well he's always going to be with you no matter what!  Jesus said no one can snatch us away from him (John 10:28).  He promises that if we seek him, we will find him (Matthew 7:7).  He pursues us (Luke 15:4-6).  These are only a few of his promises.  Maybe in a future blog entry I'll get into more details on his promises.

If we are sheep, Jesus is our shepherd (Jesus uses this illustration).  He is VERY protective over us, like a good shepherd is protective over their flock.  Hungry wolves want to eat the sheep (us), and if we have no shepherd, we're going to get eaten by the wolves one way or another.  If we have a bad shepherd, they're probably not going to be very good at protecting us either.

I often see myself as a little lamb that often gets itself into trouble.  I tend to wander away from the shepherd and other sheep, and then I get lost.  I'm all alone, even injured at times.  That's when I get surrounded by the wolves.  On my own, I am no match for the wolves, and they'll tear into me until there's nothing left but my scattered bones.  I'll cry for help, but I'm too far away from the other sheep to hear me - they don't even notice I'm away.  But my Shepherd, heh, he ALWAYS comes to my rescue!  When I think I'm all alone, I'm really not, he's been following me all along from a distance!  Just when the wolves are about to devour me, he jumps in and fights them off with his staff! The wolves run away, he bandages up my wounds, and he carries me on his shoulders back to the rest of the flock.  This is how I see myself - the sheep always getting into trouble, yet is always rescued when I need it most.  This is your story too though, not just mine!  We are all like dumb sheep, and he comes to our rescue when we need him most.

Jesus holds us in his arms and will never let us go.  There's only one way to leave his arms, and that is we have to WILLINGLY leave them.  He's not going to force himself on you - that's why we have free will after all.  A relationship consists of both parties wanting to be with the other.  If one person leaves the relationship, then the relationship is over.  He's not going to let you go, and no one can take you away from him - but you can willingly leave him.  You may ask, "I already left, but I can't return, he'd never take me back."  No matter how far away you've gone, if you return to him he will ALWAYS accept you back.  You're the prodigal child!  He will RUN to you while you're still far off in the distance on your way to him!

His arms are wide open for you.


I had this vision once (it wasn't a dream because I was wide awake when I had it).  I had been following Christ for a couple years, which meant I had not actively looked at porn for a couple years.  I still struggled with it though.  Even though I wasn't acting out on it, the images would still come to mind at times, and I'd even have dreams of it at times.  This one particular night as I was lying in bed trying to sleep, images kept going in my head that I didn't want.  I prayed and begged God to help me get rid of the images.  I was in tears.  Then, I saw this vision.  I was in a small room - no doors and no windows.  Everything around me - the walls, floor, and ceiling, were all like playing videos of the stuff I used to look at.  Images, sounds, all of it.  I sat on the floor crying, covering my ears so I wouldn't hear the sounds, and tightly shutting my eyes closed so I wouldn't see the images.  I kept begging God to help me.  Then, I heard footsteps in front of me, and somehow I knew they knelt down in front of me.  They held me tightly and I instantly knew who it was.  I cried on his chest, covering my face so I wouldn't see the images.  He told me gently that everything was going to be okay.  The vision ended, and the images in my head were gone.  Most of my dreams I've had of Jesus (which are not very many), he is coming to my rescue from something.  When I need him most, he always comes to my rescue.  A few years back, I walked away from Christianity.  I felt like God didn't really want me.  After three days though, I'm not kidding, he came in a dream and rescued me.  What's so ironic about this time is that I told my husband (who was distraught that I had left the faith), "If he really wants me, he'll come for me."  On top of that, my husband talked to a friend about it and his friend said, "She won't be gone for long."  Well, three days later he came to me in a dream and I returned to the faith.  When we really seek him with all our hearts, and when we need him most, he will always come to our rescue.  "Seek and you will find."  Those are Jesus' words.  Run to him, run to him and jump in his arms!  He will not let you go.