{"id":8683,"date":"2022-01-29T01:45:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-29T01:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=8683"},"modified":"2022-01-29T01:52:35","modified_gmt":"2022-01-29T01:52:35","slug":"you-will-not-be-afraid-of-the-arrow-that-flies-by-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=8683","title":{"rendered":"You will not be afraid of the arrow that flies by day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>You\u00a0will not be afraid of the\u00a0terror by night,<\/em><em><br \/>\nOr of the\u00a0arrow that flies by day;<br \/>\nOf the\u00a0pestilence that stalks in darkness,<br \/>\nOr of the\u00a0destruction that lays waste at noon.<\/em> Psalm 91:5-6<\/p>\n<p>Four fears that tend to haunt people are listed under the declaration, \u201cYOU WILL NOT BE AFRAID OF\u2026\u201d. The top four on that list include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Terror by night<\/li>\n<li>The arrow that flies by day<\/li>\n<li>Pestilence that stalks in darkness<\/li>\n<li>Destruction that lays waste at noon<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u2019ve discovered that the more I think on and pray through Psalm 91 and other Scriptures, the less fearful I have become. And I\u2019ve also learned that when I <em>do<\/em> get afraid, I know exactly where to turn in my Bible for comfort and relief from torment and attack.<\/p>\n<p><em>You\u00a0will not be afraid of the\u00a0terror by night\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The terror by night is, more often than not, an attack on your mind\u2014imaginary\u2014rather than physically undergoing a terrorizing event. Nevertheless, countless hours of sleep have been lost while multitudes of souls, ravaged by fearful torments or hideous nightmares, toss and turn. If this describes you, pray Psalm 91 before you go to bed. Let yourself think about the different aspects of God\u2019s faithfulness to you. Picture Him near, guarding you, ready to act on your behalf. And do so <em>often<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2026or of the\u00a0arrow that flies by day\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A year or so ago, drivers on a section of highway just outside of my neighborhood had been shot and killed on two different occasions about a week or so apart by drive-by shooters. People started saying, \u201cI\u2019ll <em>never<\/em> drive on that part of the highway again! Look at what\u2019s happening there!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By that time, I had been praying Psalm 91 fairly frequently, and I started feeling angry. \u201cHow DARE the devil try to stake out turf on MY section of highway?\u201d I wasn\u2019t scared; I was <em>offended<\/em>. So I prayed.<\/p>\n<p>When I knew what I was to do, I shared the direction I&#8217;d received with a Saturday morning prayer group. They prayed in agreement, asking the Lord to lead and protect me, and after prayer, I proceeded to my assignment.<\/p>\n<p>First stop was my town\u2019s police station. I simply parked in the lot and prayed in the Spirit. I asked God to give wisdom to detectives on the case to find and arrest the perpetrators before anyone else was shot; I also prayed that He would foil any attempt to continue with the crime spree until then. I prayed against copycat activity as well.<\/p>\n<p>I lingered in that lot until I had a \u201cknowing\u201d that I was finished there and then headed for the highway.<\/p>\n<p>The approximately two-mile section was nearby. As I pulled onto the entrance ramp a plan emerged. I would drive from one entrance ramp to the next exit, cross over (or under) the highway and pull back onto it, circling around and around, praying until I knew I was finished. I prayed and sang in the Spirit, up and down, up and down the highway. After the fifth or sixth lap, a Scripture rose up in me. It was Isaiah 58:12.<\/p>\n<p><em>Those from among you will\u00a0rebuild the ancient ruins;<\/em><em><br \/>\nYou will\u00a0raise up the age-old foundations;<br \/>\nAnd you will be called the repairer of the\u00a0breach,<br \/>\nThe restorer of the streets in which to dwell. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Emboldened, I continued with the laps, proclaiming these words over the highway\u2014<em>my<\/em> section of highway! In triumph, I shouted, \u201cThank You, Father! YOU, and You alone are the Restorer of the streets in which to dwell\u2026and that includes THIS section of highway, the section You&#8217;ve given to ME!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t care <em>what<\/em> the people driving next to me were thinking; I was doing this for THEM, for their KIDS, and for their friends and families. Anyway, I was certain they\u2019d seen weirder things than <em>this<\/em> on their travels!<\/p>\n<p>And do you know that to this day, there has not been ONE shot fired on that section of highway?<\/p>\n<p>Remember, Jesus told us that \u201c<em>\u2026In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good courage! I have overcome the world<\/em>\u201d (John 16:33b). If the world throws some tribulation your way, you have every right to turn to the Lord to see what He would have you to do about it. Don\u2019t just accept the mess as your &#8220;new normal&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>We were also told, \u201c<em>Be of sober\u00a0spirit,\u00a0be on the alert. Your adversary,\u00a0the devil, prowls around like a roaring\u00a0lion, seeking someone to devour.<\/em> <em>But resist him, firm in your faith<\/em>\u201d (1 Peter 5:8-9a). We were <em>not<\/em> told to be afraid, to wring our hands, or to stop driving our familiar routes. Sure, there may be times that the Holy Spirit will intervene to send you a different way to spare you from danger, but He will never direct you to give up ground to violence or the enemy.<\/p>\n<p>May you grow stronger and stronger as you put down roots in this amazing Psalm 91.<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy<\/p>\n<p><em>You\u00a0will not be afraid of the arrow that flies by day. <\/em>Psalm 91:5b<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 2022, Dorothy Frick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u00a0will not be afraid of the\u00a0terror by night, Or of the\u00a0arrow that flies by day; Of the\u00a0pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the\u00a0destruction that lays waste at noon. Psalm 91:5-6 Four fears that tend to haunt people are listed under the declaration, \u201cYOU WILL NOT BE AFRAID OF\u2026\u201d. The top four on that list [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,537],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayerperspective","category-psalm-91"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8683"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8691,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8683\/revisions\/8691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}