If you are in the middle of a difficult season, I want to remind you of this: The Lord is your shield.
Maybe, like me, you have been through some personal situations recently where it seemed like no one could help you find the solution.
Maybe you are being slandered, mocked, manipulated and rejected.
Maybe you feel like you can’t stand up one more time to what the day is going to throw at you.
This is when you need a shield. We don’t need a shield if there is no danger. We don’t need a shield when no one is against us and no one is trying to attack us. But in the middle of the battles in your life, you need a shield.
Earlier this summer, I was feeling alone in my struggle. One evening I lied down on my couch and turned on some worship music so that I could fix my mind on God’s truth instead of my worries. I listened to Jeremy Camp’s song “My Defender” and Kim Walker Smith’s song “On My Side.”
Both songs talk not only about how God stays close to us in the middle of the hard times, but also how He defends us and guards our heart.
A few days later, God showed me Psalm 28:7: “The LORD is my strength and my shield.” When I read it, I thought, “This is it! This is my mantra for this season.”
As I thought about this verse in light of the struggle I was facing, I realized God was showing me that He saw me in the middle of my situation and that He was defending me when it felt like no one else was. The more I placed my trust in God, the more I sensed God shielding me from the attacks and stresses firing at me.
As the summer went on, more difficult things happened. I often had to call others to help me. As I waited for them to come to my house, I would go outside and use my nervous energy to pull weeds from my flower garden, the whole time repeating the phrase, “The LORD is my shield.”
At the end of the summer, I took kids from our church to church camp, and I taught them about how God is our shield. I bought a shield to hold up as we talked about God being with us and defending us. I knew that these young kids were going to face all sorts of struggles in their lives, and I wanted them to remember the visual that the Lord is our shield. We helped the kids to memorize Psalm 28:7.
I’ve been praying this verse over my daughter lately too. When she’s required to interact with other people who could potentially hurt her heart, I pray that God will be her shield. I believe God will do this for her, and He will do this for you and me too.
Mary Nolen is director of women’s and children’s ministries at Brookville Road Community Church in New Palestine. She is author of “She Won’t Shrink Back: A Story of Building and Believing.” This weekly column is written by local clergy members.
