Are You in Good Hands When Mayhem Strikes?

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011 by Lori Roeleveld Start the Conversation

Mayhem has struck my household.

Not the Allstate commercial guy but his real life counterpart.

Not as funny as the ads, I must say.

Since January 1, I’ve experienced everything from home loss to major career change to auto breakdown, unexpected health issues, blizzards, overflowing sinks from clogged plumbing, family drama and more.

It seems there is no level on which upheaval cannot be wrought on my life this month. It’s come in its grandest forms and in its minor irritations. I have mayhem in spades. And like the commercials say – I didn’t see it coming.

WHAM!

And because life does come at you fast, it’s good to have coverage you can count on.

I am covered by the blood of Jesus Christ and I can testify, again, that there is no other god like the God of the Bible. There just isn’t.

I don’t just follow God, I rely on Him. I admire and respect Him.

Worshipping Him isn’t a duty I carry out; it’s the natural (or supernatural) outcome of knowing Him and spending time with Him. Part of the reason is this – He is here when trouble comes. As God’s word says, He is a “present help in times of trouble.”

This sets Him apart from every other religion, belief system or idol humans can create. All these false gods need US to keep them going. God – the great I AM – does not. Even His name is verb. He is a God who acts. He is regardless of my belief in Him.

He is not kept alive, like Tinkerbell, because I believe. I am kept alive because He is.

In Isaiah, God mocks the false gods of the Babylonians saying this:

“Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by beasts of burden.The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary.They stoop and bow down together; unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity.” Isaiah 46: 1-2

The Babylonians worshipped gods they carved for themselves out of wood and stone, gods who needed to be lugged around and who were, eventually, lugged off to captivity with the people they were helpless to deliver.

God then reminds the Israelites that He does not need to be carried. He carries them.

“Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob, all the remnant of the people of Israel, you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have carried since you were born.Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” Isaiah 46:3-4

I do not need to carry my God around. He carries me.

When I am in trouble, He acts on my behalf. He heals. He sustains. He delivers. He defends. He provides.
Psalm 34:19 says this: “The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all”

This month, I have mayhem in my life. So I call out to God and He acts on my behalf – not only by sustaining my spirit but by providing in practical ways – home, job, stove, refrigerator, transportation, a kind word. Sometimes He works through other people, sometimes through conventional avenues and sometimes out of the miraculous blue.

When mayhem arrives, I am covered by the only God who does not need to be carried. By the God who carries me.

I’m not in the hands of Allstate. I’m in the hands of the God who moves and acts and carries those who love Him in His own hands.

Are you in good hands?