Defeated by Salt: Devotions from the Psalms (27:2)
"When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my
foes attack me, they will stumble and fall." (Ps 27:2 NIV)
How much confidence do we have in God? Do we believe He will always come through
for us? Do we trust fully His promises?
David sure did. He knew through experience that he had nothing to fear. Even in
the vilest of circumstances, God would come through. Guaranteed! Nothing would
be impossible to him, not because of his expertise or his cunning, but because
his Father was there for him!
Walking on icebergs was an unusual experience. We were exploring the beach at
Jokulsarlon in Iceland when we came across them: Hundreds of icebergs, ranging
in size from so small that they would melt in your hand if you touched them, to
huge! Many had washed up on shore, and we were enjoying throwing them back into
the water, climbing them, posing with them for pictures, etc.
Jokulsarlon is a lagoon filled with icebergs that have broken off of a nearby
glacier. This mighty glacier is gradually being defeated-or eroded, if you
wish-not by global warning as many would think, but rather, by its proximity to
saltwater! The consequence? Gigantic chunks of ice regularly break off the
glacier and become icebergs. These then drift through a lagoon made up of
brackish water, and ultimately make their way into the Atlantic Ocean.
Eventually these mighty giants erode to nothingness, and some of them wash up on
the beach that we were exploring.
And it's all because of salt!
It's there that the following thought hit me: Aren't we, as Christians,
considered to be the salt of the world?
"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it
be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out
and trampled by men." (Matt 5:13 NIV)
We are indeed the salt of the world, but beware, we can lose our saltiness!
What makes us salty in the first place? It's simple: It's our faith in the Lord!
"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain,
'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
(Matt 17:20 NIV)
What can make us lose our saltiness?
If our faith makes us salty, then it is only natural to assume that it would be
our lack of faith that would make us lose our saltiness! It would be the times
we rely on ourselves, rather than on God!
Remember why Israel wasn't able to immediately conquer the Promised Land? "The
land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of
great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the
Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same
to them." (Num 13:32-33 NIV)
Strangely enough, it's then than our troubles look bigger than they truly are!
We have forgotten that "the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in
the world." (1 John 4:4 NIV).
If we leave our trust in God, however, these very same icebergs in our lives
will grow smaller and smaller, evaporating to nothingness. Remember, salt is
what it takes to erode icebergs!
King David experienced that and we can too!
Those icebergs sure look big, but our God is even bigger!
Rob Chaffart