God Hovers Over us
by David Silvester
From our study window we can look out towards the Bowland Hills, but one morning something that caught my eye was not the beauty of the hills, but a bird of prey. It was hovering, waiting to pounce upon some unsuspecting creature to eat for its breakfast.
Observing this basic incident of nature reminded me of how our loving Heavenly Father is constantly hovering over us. But He’s not waiting to ‘pounce on us’ in judgement. He’s waiting for the right moment to lavish His love and blessings upon us.
It’s sad to hear some Christians go through a period of difficulty and say, “I think God is judging me”, or “God has sent this trial to punish me for something”, or “Why is God testing me with this?”
James 1:13-15, says: ‘When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me”. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full grown, gives birth to death’.
James is saying that temptation is the test of a person’s moral strength to resist sin, and that God’s holy nature is such that there is nothing in Him for sin to appeal to. Sin is totally foreign to God’s nature.
What we need to recognise is that many of the things in life we might consider as trials have deep roots, and these roots need to be dealt with. God, in His love for us, hovers over us, longing to pour His rich blessings into us, but if there’s some sin that hasn’t been dealt with at its root we need to face the fact that our sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2). It could be preventing us from receiving His blessings.
The words of 1 John 1:9 are so true, ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness’.
In ministering to many people, and getting to the root of a problem, we’ve witnessed amazing healings as they’ve confessed (spoken out loud and owned up to their sins in the presence of witnesses) and repented of those sins. This is where much healing begins.
Prayer: Dear Lord God, holy and awesome God, thank You for the way You watch over me in love. Please forgive me for thinking You’re judging me when I experience problems. Please reveal to me any sin that lies at the root of the problem and give me the courage to seek help and have the problem dealt with in the proper manner, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Silvester is married and has a son, two daughters and eight grandchildren. He trained as a production engineer. He then moved on to become a lecturer of engineering craft skills before being called of God in his early fifties to become a pastor of a Baptist church. He says that,"having previously experienced an amazing healing on a day others expected me to die, it came as no surprise that God directed me and my wife, Margaret, to become involved with Ellel Ministries."
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