Safe In the Hand of the Father

# 155 - Today's Du-votional comes from: 1Sa 12:10,11, “Then they cried out to the LORD, and said, 'We have sinned, because we have forsaken the LORD and served the Baals and Ashtoreths; but now deliver us from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve You.' 11 "And the LORD sent Jerubbaal, Bedan, Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side; and you dwelt in safety.” ( 1 Sam 12:10,11) The history lesson continues. God had set the Israelites up in the Promised land, but they “forgot” Him, became oblivious to Him, left His hand of protection and chased after other gods. He then gave them over to their enemies. In the hands of their enemies and miserable in their sin, the people would come to their senses and cry out to God for deliverance, with a renewed promise to serve God alone. God in His unfathomable mercy heard their pleas and sent them deliverers time after time after time. When will this cycle end? In one sense it ends with Jesus. No need to send deliverer after deliverer any more. Jesus is our once and forever Deliverer. However, the cycle of forgetting God and then crying out for mercy is an ongoing struggle even today. Think of your existence as a choice of living in two hands. One hand is the hand of God, and the other is the hand of the enemy. Through faith in Jesus we are placed in the hand of God. It is an open hand. He does not hold us with a closed fist. As long as we remain in the faith, we are safe from the enemy. Jesus reminds us of this truth in Joh 10:29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. But when we become oblivious to God, we have chosen to walk out of the protection offered by His hand, and we fall into the hand of the enemy. He's not so kind. He seeks to keep you in his clenched fist, and only God is able to pry his fingers off of our soul. God is willing and able to do that for those who cry out for mercy. Cry out today, and then seek to live out your life in the safe hand of God.