The Passover Experience

UV 669/10,000 The Passover Experience Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by. Psalm 57 v 1 It is on account of God’s abounding and abundant mercy to us that we are able to approach His awesome presence. God is not religious. He is relational. Hence, He shows mercy to us and relates to us as a hen would with its chicken-hiding the chicken under its wings to protect from any predator. The wings that God provides for our protection and sustenance all through our lives are prayer and the Word. Whenever a calamity is threatening us, whenever we face a threat we must search scripture for a word of encouragement. Then, with believing and trusting hearts, we must make that portion an article of faith in our lives. With prayer, we must appropriate it or make it part of our daily lives. With praise and thanksgiving, we must rejoice in the shadow of His mighty wings. Once the threat or calamity has passed, we must not forget but constantly thank the Lord and draw even closer to Him and be a testimony to others of His faithfulness and mercy. We must not however remain chicken all the time, but grow in size and weight to be mature hens. The hen by reason of sheer size and weight is not threatened by the eagle. When we are mature, the threat is no longer from the eagle but from foxes and other larger predators. Even when we have grown and face a different order of threats, the source of protection is more Word and more prayer. As the size of the threat grows, the size of God’s wings of protection over our lives also grows. On account of my little faith, I was saved from some huge calamities in life- an assassination with a human bomb, a drowning to death in the sea, a tsunami, a flood and many other threats, some of which I am aware of and some I may not even be aware of. At these times, as I hid in His Word by prayer, His presence covered me as with feathers. It was not because I deserved to be saved but it was because He is merciful and gracious to those who cling to Him. Every one of us need a “ Passover” experience in order to realize the reality, power, grace and mercy of God such that we will not forget for even a moment in the rest of our lives. The difference from the Jewish Passover is that instead of just the walls of our homes, our bodies, spirits and minds are marked in the shape of a cross with the blood of the Lamb provided by God-Jesus the Christ. Prateep V Philip