OH Mighty Fortress is OUR GOD.

The name of the Lord is a strong fortress; the godly run to him and are safe.

~ Proverbs 18:10, NLT

You know something I just noticed? Proverbs 18:10 above says: "THE NAME of the Lord is a strong fortress......." Got that, His NAME, Not His person, not any physical thing,but just HIS NAME. The bible tells us that just using HIS name will cause demons to tremble, to flee, Satan to run away with his tail between his legs. All we have to do is mention the NAME of the Lord and evil MUST flee. I have read this verse many times in my life, but somehow I did not focus on the NAME being a strong fortress, but I just assumed it was the PERSON of God. Wow, this really blows me away, that just His NAME is all we need to profess.

Now let's get to the real cool stuff: ....."the godly run to Him and are, and are what? Scared, shaking in our boots, hoping that the evil one will not see us, hiding under the bed or the covers, trying not to breath to heavily so no one will hear us? NO, when we run to HIM we ARE SAFE. We are SAFE, WHEN we use the LORD'S NAME.

Have you ever been in a situation that happens so fast all you have time to do is say "Jesus", not "Help me Jesus" or " Our dear heavenly Father, I come to you now, in your wonderful name asking you to intervene in this situation I have found myself in.............", BUT just "JESUS!!!!" He hears you, He sees what a mess your in, He cares for you, and He helps, He sends His angels to help, you don't have to explain the situation your in, He knows all about it. God is so all knowing, so all powerful, so all caring, so all loving, that all we have to do is mention His name, and .................whatever we need He will provide. It is not a "get out of jail for free card" to be used for whatever we WANT, but for whatever we need. God knows better then us what the difference is.

I was in a roll over years ago, I was driving a garbage truck. The truck was full of well , garbage, heavy and therefore took a little longer to come to a stop. I was heading down a long hill with a traffic light at the bottom. The light turned yellow, and I began applying the brake slowly as I knew it would take a while to stop, just a little pressure I had plenty of room, or so I thought. I pressed harder on the brake, no slowing down, I pressed even harder, just a little effect. We, ( there was one other in the truck with me, my helper, Greg) were getting closer and closer to the bottom of the hill and the cars stopped at the red light. I yelled to Greg: "Hang on we're not going to make it!!!" I had to make a decision, to plow into the back of those cars and possibly hurt a lot of people, or take the turn to the right and hope for the best. I turned right, the truck's right side came off the ground, and at that instant I yelled: "Jesus!!!!" Or maybe I just thought His name, I really don't remember. All of a sudden everything slowed down, the truck rolled onto it's left side, then onto the top and then onto the right side, all in slow motion. I do not remember hitting anything, (neither me or my helper had seat belts on), I don't remember my lunch box flying through the air and landing on me, but when we came to a rest it was on top of my head. The truck stopped, and I heard Greg screaming in pain. I had blood dripping from a gash in my right hand, it had evidently hit the drivers side glass. The ambulances came, the police came......we were taken to the emergency room. I was fine, 3 stitches in my arm, a few in my eyelid that got cut somehow in the whole mess. Greg, though, had two broken vertebrae, and is paralyzed from the waist down. This all happened about 15 years ago and I still do not have any memory of what happened between the right wheels coming off the ground and us coming to a rest on the right side of the truck. Greg does though, he told me that his whole top half went flying through the open window on his side and was crushed by the weight of the truck when it rolled over. He has memories as if slow motion also, but of our lunch boxes flying through the air, of me reaching out to try and stop him from flying out the window, of garbage coming out of the back of the truck and flying through the air........I think, sometimes he thinks I am lying when I say I don't remember any of this. He also more then likely questions why he was paralyzed and I was fine. I have not seen or talked to Greg in years, but I still remember his screams that day. I pray for him and hope he is doing well. But the point of this story is this: Just the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe, is why I am fine, barely a scratch. I have a faded scar on my arm from that day, it reminds me of the experience every time I look at it.

That day I ran into the strong fortress that is Jesus' name and I was safe.

God hears us when we call His name. Go ahead give it a try, He will hear you and He will come to you. If you ask Him to forgive you for all your doubts, sins, problems you've gotten yourself into, He will help with those to. You see, when we call His name, we are surrendering to Him, confessing that we know He exists, that He does care for us and that He is powerful enough to get us out of any situation.

Go ahead, don't wait for that "Situation" to come along where you in deep despair, facing death, or pain, call on Him now, He is waiting patiently.