As I was leaving my PE class one day in Junior High, as I threw my tennis shoes over my shoulder, one of my shoes accidentally hit one of the biggest and toughest bullies in school who happened to be walking behind me. He immediately began shoving me. Being the smart kid that I was then, and the fact that I only weighed 90lbs, I quickly apologized to him but that wasn’t enough. He said he would meet me after school and finish what he started that morning.

The rest of my day was horrible; all I could think about was the beating I would be getting after school. My close friend suggested as soon as the last school bell rang to signify the school day was over, that we quickly get to our locker and leave the school grounds as fast as we could. I agreed to do that, but this bully decided to meet me at my locker instead of outside of the school grounds to finish his job.

As the bully began shoving me and punching me, out of the blue, another friend of mine, who was a school bully himself, but bigger and tougher than the bully who was punching me, came up behind me and punched the other bully so hard he fell to the ground. He then said to the bully on the ground that if he wanted to harm me, he would first have to go through him. Like all bullies, everyone knows their limits and the bully on the ground knew my friend was much stronger and bigger than he was, so quickly apologized to me and left the school, never to bother me again.

I thanked my friend for sticking up for me and being there at the right time. My friend said that if anyone ever bothered me again to let him know and he would make sure to take care of business!

I’ve discovered in life that there is always someone who is bigger, stronger and meaner, so you have to be careful who you challenge. I’ve seen the smallest of persons, but with big brave hearts, take down some of the biggest and meanest people; so one never knows who they are fighting.

“Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as He did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes” Deuteronomy 1:29

Because the Israelite’s had exaggerated about the size of the cities in Canaan, and thinking the Lord hated them because they had rebelled against the command of the Lord, great fear began to rise in the hearts of the Israelite’s.

The truth was, the Lord did not hate the Israelite’s but instead loved them with the tender love a father has for his son. All the Israelite’s needed to do was to look back at their past to see the many times the Lord had miraculously delivered and fought for them. The Lord was in essence saying: “How I fought for you and delivered you then before you very eyes, I will do again so you have no need to fear!”

Just as bullies love to instill fear into our hearts, the enemy, Satan, loves to do the same thing to us as believers, except to a much larger scale. He lies and tries to cause us to doubt and cause fear to rise in our hearts/minds, thinking the Lord will not fight for us, will not love us because of all our failures.

When the enemy tries to bully us, like my friend that day in school told the other bully if he ever tried to harm me again, he would first have to go through him, we can trust, knowing the Lord is Defender.

Psalm 28:7 “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song”

Feeling bullied lately by the enemy my friend? All we need to do is remind our spirits about all the Lord has done for us, how He has fought for us and will continue to do so! No fear in the Lord!!!

Photo by Kristian Egelund on Unsplash