Do Not Fear The Oppressor!

Yet again health issues have prevented me from writing as much as I would have liked to. My longer term health issues, praise God, have improved, but other issues such as hormonal problems and migraines have been ongoing over the last nine days, making it hard for me to sit in front of a computer. But although sometimes the fighting can seem a little continuous and designed, I am sure, to drag me down and exhaust me, I continue to press on in faith knowing that a better place in terms of health lies ahead. Sometimes our best testimony is that 'I am still here' and 'I still believe, in spite of it all'.

After the recent passing of Nelson Mandela I watched a very interesting programme about his time in prison. It included extracts from letters he wrote whilst in there and from his autobiography 'The Long Walk to Freedom', which he co-wrote with a journalist called Richard Stengel.

Some of the extracts spoke very clearly to me of our journeys through life as Christians, and the difficulties we face. At one point the voice over said "Richard Stengel began to see (the prison) Robben Island, not as the prison which had confined Mandela, but the crucible which had transformed him".

Are our greatest difficulties not the very things that God uses to refine us, to form us (if we will allow Him) into not only the person He longs for us to be, but also the person He designed and created us to be, the very best person we can be? Of course we are not usually incarcerated, as Mandela was, fighting for what we believe in, for so many years, but are we not also oppressed and imprisoned by circumstances and difficulties that are often far beyond our control?

I have learnt first hand through some appalling difficulties of abuse, great financial hardship and dreadful illness that I am not in control. I have felt helpless and imprisoned. But I recognise these things are not sent by God. However He can and does use them 'as the crucible which transforms us'. If we trust Him and will allow it. I know that I am in no ways the person I used to be, I believe and hope I am 'better' in many ways.

Nature again showed itself to be very useful in demonstrating how difficulties can seemingly block our way forward, when on a walk recently:

It can be smaller things such as vines and branches that would seek to entangle or trip us ..

.. or it can be larger problems, such as a huge tree felled in a storm!

Problems come in a variety of sizes, some more obvious than others. But a small, entangling, seemingly innocuous situation can be as potentially devastating as the larger more obvious issues.

However in all situations, God has spoken to me very clearly not to fear. It is fine to feel afraid - I have many times recently in situations I have faced. Recently I had to take a new medication which had previously made me feel like I was dying - I do not exaggerate. It was an awful, frightening experience. However when needing to take it again recently, although afraid, I felt the Lord say to trust Him and go ahead. In that circumstance I felt very afraid - I was so scared that I was crying and holding my husband's hand. But I trusted God and took the medication, and this time I had a far better experience. That is what the Lord wants - not for us to never feel fear, but to follow His leading no matter how we feel.

This was very well expressed in the words of Mandela in the documentary:

"Prison liberates a person, because one of the things that paralyses a movement is to fear the oppressor. You don't want to go to prison, you don't want to be arrested - and by going to jail you rid yourselves of that fear. Then there is nothing the authorities can do. Once you have rid yourself of the fear of the oppressor and his prisons, his police, his army - then there is nothing they can do. You are liberated!"

Christians often speak about Job in the Bible, who had so much, lost it all and was then restored to full health and abundance. But what is often missed is that Job says of it all: "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me." Job 3: 25.

Job may have looked like he was doing OK at the start of the book of Job, but the fact is he kept sacrificing religiously because he was greatly afraid! Fear, when submitted to, gives off a scent in the spiritual realms and attracts the enemy (the devil) and gives him access to our lives.

I feared illness and I became very unwell. I feared lack and it came upon me. Now it is not all my fault, but it had a part to play. But as time has worn on I have learnt more and more than I can trust God - He is my friend, He loves me and will never fail me.

We continue to face potential lack of work, lack of funds, health issues, I'm still working through issues to do with abuse, we have serious ongoing family issues, and so on. Fear tries to harass me a lot. But the antidote to fear is to trust in the One who is greater. Sometimes when I feel I am living in darkness, it is not the size of my problem, but simply the shadow of my very large God who stands behind me, to protect me and face the enemy down.

I may feel fear, but I will not fear the oppressor!

And as on our wet, muddy, obstacled walk, I continue to find fun and joy as I journey on, for I am still so very blessed:

Even an obstacle can create an opportunity for fun - we just need the childlike simplicity to see it!