A close friend who lives in another town texted: \u201cI\u2019m sorry you had to go back in the hospital. Was that expected or is this a setback?\u201d I picked up a sinus infection several days ago and because my immune system is so compromised, I ended up spending five more days on the ninth floor at Emory. Here\u2019s a great \u2018setback\u2019 story from the Old Testament:<\/p>\n
So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses\u2019 hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up \u2013 one on one side, one on the other \u2013 so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. (Exodus 17:10-13)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Moses discovered that when his hands were down there was a setback; when his hands were up, there was victory. If this is the complete secret to success, surely my hands will always be up\u2026 and I\u2019ll go undefeated. And if it works on the battlefield, then perhaps I can find a way to keep my hands up when I play my neighbor in checkers. And when I anticipate a long argument with my wife, I\u2019ll invite Aaron and Hur to my house.<\/p>\n
As far as we know, this is only time such battle tactics were used, but surely there is a message for God\u2019s children. After the battle, \u201cMoses built an altar and called it The Lord is My Banner<\/em>. He said, \u2018For hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord.\u2019\u201d (Exodus 17:15-16)<\/p>\n
I recently woke up in the middle of the night with these thoughts, and started feeling one of the lingering symptoms of the sinus infection. Two Tylenol always help with the headaches, so I rose, took two tablets and went back to bed. Twenty minutes later, I was still thinking about this story and my headache was much worse. Laying on my side, I lifted up my free arm and gained immediate relief from the pain. \u201cHmm,\u201d I thought, \u201cI don\u2019t think Susan will appreciate me waking her up with the request to hold my hand toward the ceiling the rest of the night.\u201d Thankfully the headache did not return.<\/p>\n
Setbacks are a part of life, but God wants us to always live with Him as our Banner\u2026 and we need brothers and sisters like Aaron and Hur to do it. We cannot live victoriously without members of the Body of Christ reminding us of the Father\u2019s heart and holding our hands up when we are weak.<\/p>\n
To live as\u00a0The Lord is My Banner<\/em>, we must keep our eyes lifted up. \u201cGod is over all; He is not worried or confused; I will exalt Him.\u201d The world cannot be expected to think or act this way, but God\u2019s children can\u2026 because \u201cwe know and rely on the love God has for us.\u201d In the last verse of 10,000 Reasons<\/em>, Matt Redman says such living sustains us to the end of our time on earth and into life eternal.<\/p>\n
And on that day when my strength is failing
\nThe end draws near and my time has come.
\nStill my soul will sing Your praise unending
\nTen thousand years and then forevermore.<\/p>\nBless the Lord oh my soul. Oh my soul
\nWorship His holy name
\nSing like never before, oh my soul
\nI\u2019ll worship Your holy name.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u201cI look up to the hills \u2013 where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.\u201d Psalm 121:1-2<\/p>\n
10,000 Reasons\u00a0\u00a92011 Atlas Mountain Songs (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A close friend who lives in another town texted: \u201cI\u2019m sorry you had to go back in the hospital. Was that expected or is this a setback?\u201d I picked up a sinus infection several days ago and because my immune system is so compromised, I ended up spending five more days on the ninth floor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-struggle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2895"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2898,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2895\/revisions\/2898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}