"For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds success in store for the upright, He is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones" (Proverbs 2:6-8 NIV).
Have you ever been somewhere and felt uneasy because there was no one there to protect you? I think about a parking deck. When I began working for Star94 in Buckhead (North Atlanta) I had to be at work at 4-4:30. I was the producer and had to get the morning show setup before the air talent and any guests arrived. I was extremely nervous... OK ... scared… because our parking was in a deck under the high-rise building. I had to either take two flights up the stairs or use the elevator. I knew that the area around there (Lenox Square) had a high crime rate. So I worried about what or who might be hiding behind a concrete column. When I got to the entrance I would use my key card and go into the lobby. There was a security desk there with an armed guard.
Not long after I started working there the guard waved me over to the desk when I came in the door. He told me that there was nothing to fear once I entered the parking deck. He had noticed my nervous walk and my glancing in all directions for the first few days. He showed me a bank of screens that had every angle possible from security cameras. He said there were over 25 cameras in the parking deck alone. He also said there was an alert that went off if even a possum were to walk in the parking entrance, and besides all that, his partner walked one of his patrol rounds through there at least once per hour. He smiled and said, "We’ve got your back, so don’t worry." I thanked him profusely and entered the deck and building without fear for the rest of my tenure there.
In this passage, not only are we promised God’s wisdom, knowledge, and understanding; but He is also our shield… guarding and protecting His faithful ones. That is a great assurance to remind each other of when fear tries to creep in. The only true fear we should have in our life is the healthy kind of fear, i.e. respect for how wise and power our Holy God is. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be vigilant or use wisdom in when and where to go places. But it does mean that when we do have to go somewhere like that, physically or emotionally, God’s got our back.
Have a great weekend!
Love you!
Dad
