On September 15, 2020, social media websites were abuzz with a drone video from Thailand. The video shows a farmer turning loose his 10,000 ducks on some recently harvested rice paddies. The farmer did this because insects, snails, and parasites afflict the plants during the off season and kill them. Trying to remove the parasites by hand would be an overwhelming and costly task. Using pesticides would be harmful to the waterfowl and might prove toxic to the human population.
But this farmer had an army of ducks at his command – khaki Campbell ducks to be specific. Once he unleashed them, the hungry horde rushed to the rice paddies and gobbled up snails, insects, and parasites by the millions. And in those rice paddies the ducks will remain for the next five months – until they begin laying eggs. Then the farmer will round up his beauties and gather their eggs as the rice begins to grow again. His 10,000 thousand ducks are the perfect weapon against a multitude of pests and problems.
Are your problems too many to handle? Are you overwhelmed by adverse circumstances and people’s opposition? God’s got armies to deal with them all? When we open our hearts to the Lord, He commands swarms of birds to consume every last locust. He commands oxpeckers and cleaner fish to remove every parasite that infests you.
Think of Paul the apostle in Acts 23:12-33. When more than 40 men planned to assassinate Paul, God prepared a force of 470 soldiers to protect him. God will do that. Whenever the devil raises up a platoon to harm you, God will send a battalion to keep them away.
But God’s got bigger and fiercer armies. When we are reconciled to God, He charges His innumerable angels to guard and protect you from every enemy – earthly and demonic. And when you open your life to him, He orders the circumstances around you to conform to His will. He will make all those many moving pieces align to His purpose to bless you and to make you more like His Son, Jesus Christ.
Now, for sure, some of those circumstances will still be adverse. The difference is that, when God takes charge of your life, those adversities will not slowly consume you. No, rather they will steadily strengthen you and purify your life. Yes, God will change your war zone of destruction into a gymnasium where pain turns to gain. Instead of repeated loss in your adversity, you’ll achieve eternal gain.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
PRAYER: Dear Father in heaven, into Your eternally loving and capable hands I commit my life, my soul, and my all. There is no better plan for my life than the one You’ve conceived. There is no greater joy and contentment than what You will give to those who obey You. There is no greater blessing than the supreme gift of Your Son, Jesus Christ, who bore upon Himself all my sin and all Your judgments against those sins. And if You did not withhold Your own Son to save me, You will obviously withhold nothing else that will make me fit for heaven and more like Jesus Christ. Thank You, Father. I could not be in better hands than Yours. And You, Almighty Father, command innumerable armies to vanquish all Your foes and to protect the treasure You see in me. Through Jesus Christ, Your holy Son. Amen.
