Psalm 55:12-14 English Standard Version

12 For it is not an enemy who taunts me—
    then I could bear it;
it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—
    then I could hide from him.

13 But it is you, a man, my equal,
    my companion, my familiar friend.

14 We used to take sweet counsel together;
    within God’s house we walked in the throng.

In an article called Bible 101 I wrote “take it personal”, but I failed to leave a cautionary note. My intention was to inspire readers to take the Word of God to heart. That is accomplished by accepting Jesus into our hearts. After all Jesus is the Word.

This is a personal relationship with God and my cautionary note is this; familiarity lessens the tone of respect for the God that deserves it.

Proverbs 14:15

The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.

Proverbs 7:4

Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend,

John 15:15

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

1 Corinthians 2:16

“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

While this is all true we do not do the thinking for our Lord. Not every thought that sounds good, right and useful is from the Lord. Our character has changed but we are still ourselves and He is Lord.

Be careful not to treat Him as just a familiar spirit. That term refers to an empty water vessel that makes a hollow sound. We are not empty vessels. John 7:38 

Habakkuk 2:1

I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

I prayed. That is my answer to yesterday’s question about what I did during the shutdown.

I include this quote from Habakkuk for two reasons. One is that of standing watch and waiting. The other reason concerns my complaints during that time.

So often we take our complaints to the Lord over issues in life that are out of our control. The COVID shutdown was my example yesterday and I feel it would be good to go over some very human emotions we might have all had at the time.

Having served in Vietnam I have some experience on standing watch when my life was in jeopardy and my performance on watch duty meant something serious. Not many of us are familiar with a “listening post”. Before the invention of electronic monitoring it was the human ear that was called into duty, in the dark, alone, more than 100 yards outside the camp’s perimeter.

The COVID shutdown was isolating but most of us were not alone. Most of us with families had support in praying about those things we complained about then. We had someone to help take over our prayer vigil. We had someone to talk to and share our observations.

How long did we continue to pray about COVID and the health of the elderly and the vulnerable? If I am to be honest, it wasn’t long enough. I could have stayed more focused on the danger at hand rather than allowing my mind to drift off into the landmines of complaints.

Why do I continue to constantly bring up references to war?

Ephesians 6:12

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

When we complain we lose focus on where the real battle is being fought.