A Place at His Table: Victory

A couple weeks ago, I began sharing a series of writings that God had given me about the table that He provides for us in the wilderness seasons of life. For weeks and months and nearly a year, I had been digging into His Word as I studied this subject, and it was a beautiful, wonderful, intimate time between me and The Lord.   I had tried to write some stuff before, but this experience was unlike any other because every word was very much God-breathed.  It was not from within me.  It came from the Spirit's guidance and I loved every minute.

But at the moment I typed the last word on the last page, and knew that it was finished, I began grieving the completion of it.  For quite a while, this little project was the obsession of my thoughts, and I cherished the nightly rendezvous between me, my Bible, and my laptop.  Once it was wrapped up with a neat little bow, I felt kind of lost.  I knew it was time to share it, but just as I should have expected, the fiery arrows started coming from all sides.  Those ugly, hissing, spitting, lying words of the enemy began to sound like truth--"no one wants to read this."  The blogger statistics seemed to support these lies, and so I just quit.  Maybe no one even cares about this subject but me?  {insert pitiful crisis of self-doubt here}

But then again, God met with me and illuminated the message of the Table in the Wilderness again. Perhaps this is what He wanted me to learn all along?  He said, "I spread a table of good things before the Israelites, but sometimes they chose not to eat from it."  That made sense to me, mostly because I have a house full of picky eaters.  I can put a plate of the best foods before them, but I can not force them to eat it.  (okay, I **may** have tried the force-feeding approach with my children once or twice, but it always ends up in gagging and heaving and spitting and never in enjoyable consumption).   They choose potato chips over broccoli.  They crave M-n-Ms and Skittles when they really need a plate full of fruit.  Popcorn drenched in artificial butter seems like an acceptable dinner choice.  Edamame and quinoa are grody in almost everyone's opinion.  I can put a plate of good things in front of them, but I can't make them eat.  As a mother, it's my responsibility to continue to put good foods before my children, encouraging them to make healthy choices that are good for their growth.  But it's ultimately up to them to pick it up, put in their mouth, chew it up, and ingest it.  That is truth, both at my family's dinner table and at the Table of the Lord.  The Lord can put a table of good things in front of you, but you have to choose to eat from it.  

Well, thanks for putting up with my long-winded self-absorbed confession of this psychological struggle I've been battling.  The clouds are parting and I'm starting to see the truth--and isn't it interesting that the enemy came at me every which way he could to keep me from sharing the next portion of the Table in the Wilderness study, which talks about victory over the enemy!

"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Psalm 23:5

“On a chilly fall morning in 1950, Louie walked up a long, level road towards a complex of unadorned buildings.  On the arch were painted the words SUGAMO PRISON, and beyond it waited Louie’s POW camp guards. At long last, Louie had returned to Japan...Louie had been told that all of the men who had tormented him had been arrested, convicted, and imprisoned here in Sugamo. With trepidation, he had resolved to go to Sugamo to stand before these men.  The former guards, 850 of them, sat cross-legged on the floor of a large, bare common room.  Standing at the front of the room, Louie looked out over the faces.  Before Louie left Sugamo, the colonel who was attending him asked Louie’s former guards to come forward. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over.” (excerpt from “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand).

Have you seen the movie or read the book, "Unbroken"?  This is the true story of the life of Louie Zamperini, an American POW in WWII.  {spoiler alert!} After his bomber went down over the Pacific Ocean, he drifted on an inflatable raft for 47 days  (battling sharks, eating seagulls, and enduring a typhoon) before he was captured by the Japanese and  taken as a prisoner in a punishment camp.  For more than two years, he was starved, beaten and forced into slave labor at the hands of these Japanese guards.  On the brink of death numerous times, Louie miraculously survived and was rescued along with thousands of other POWs at the end of the war.  Upon his return to the United States, Louie struggled with flashbacks, alcoholism, and became obsessed with plans to murder his former captors.  However, in October 1949, at a Billy Graham revival, Louie surrendered his life to the Lord Jesus, and found healing and forgiveness in his newly redeemed life.  Just a year after his salvation, Louie was able to stand face-to-face with his enemies at Sugamo Prison and extend forgiveness to his captors.   The victory was finally his, and it was only possible because of  the work that God had done in his life.

You probably have never been held captive by blood-thirsty tyrants, but you may have had a middle-school encounter with a bully in the bathroom who threatened to punch your lights out.  You may have been taunted, slandered, cursed, abused, and mistreated at the hands of others who tried to punish you.  Even still, while those wounds are deep and the pain is real, your abuser is not your enemy.  

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12

Human hands can break us and human words can pierce us, but truly, our only real enemy is Satan himself.  He is the enemy of our soul.  He and his demons will do whatever it takes to derail our faith and destroy our life.  “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”  (1 Peter 5:8) 

Thankfully, “the Lord your God is the One who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”  (Deuteronomy 20:4)  The battle with your foes may be fierce, and the struggle may be long and hard, but the God of angel armies is standing ready to take over the fight.  Meanwhile, He invites you to take a seat at his table, because “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." (Exodus 14:14)

Let yourself be captivated by the imagery in Psalm 23:5.  “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”  Close your eyes and imagine a beautiful banquet personally prepared for you by the hands of the Creator of the universe.  “Indeed He lured you from the jaws of distress to a spacious and unconfined space.  Your table was spread with choice food.” (Job 36:16)  And while we are feasting on God’s goodness, our enemy just has to sit there and watch.  The adversary can see it, envy it, fret about it, but can’t hinder it. 

When we are found in Christ, our enemy has no ultimate power over us.  However, this does not mean the lying murderer is just going to hang his head and run away!  He will not stop trying to mess us up, trip us up, and screw us up.  In fact, his attacks are especially fierce against those who are totally committed to the Lord. We will still experience hardships and trials in life, and victory may not come as quickly as we would like.  

What battle are you facing right now?  Are your arms tired from swinging the sword?  Are your knuckles battered and bloody from the fight?  Are you ready to just lay down and give up?   Are you bewildered and wandering around the battlefield?

If this is true of you, let this be your heart's cry today:

Be gracious to me, God, for man tramples me;

he fights and oppresses me all day long.

My adversaries trample me all day,

for may arrogantly fight against me.

When I am afraid,

I will trust in You.

In God, whose word I praise,

in God I trust; I will not fear.

What can man do to me?

You Yourself have recorded my wanderings.

Put my tears in Your bottle.

Are they not in Your records?

Then my enemies will retreat on the day when I call.

This I know:  God is for me.

~from Psalm 56~

Did you see that?  GOD IS FOR YOU!  Let me say that again and put it in bold:  Man may be against you, but GOD IS FOR YOU!!  He collects your tears, and He is aware of your wanderings!  And one day, your enemy WILL retreat. Until then, we can take confidence in God’s care as we look forward to the day of final victory when we hear a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Come up here.’  It has already been spoken and we can hold on to this truth:  'They went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies watched them.” (Revelation 11:12)

With love,

Katie