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Angels?
Really Now
Bible Study
by William S. Stoddard
“But while he thought,
the angel of the Lord appeared.” (Matthew 1:20).
Read: Matthew 1:20;
Psalm 19:14; Psalm 39:3; 104:34; 91:11; Acts 12:7; 1 Timothy 4:15 KJV; Acts
27:23; Hebrews 1:14.
What is God Saying?
Angels are for real. God sends them to help us.
They are meant to “keep” us and to “guard” us in all our
ways. Not here and there, not now and then, but always and in
all our ways.
Peter was in prison. An angel of the Lord said, “Get
up quickly,” and the chains fell off his hands.
Belonging to God and serving God (Acts 27:23) mean that God has an angel standing by us. It comes with
the territory.
Joseph saw the angel of the Lord when he was in great
perplexity. Guidance from that angel came in his deepest hour of need – another
case of a man’s extremity is God’ opportunity.
God often sends a ministering angel when we reach the end
of our rope or the end of our hope.
How Does This Apply To Us?
Psalm 91:11 reminds us that we cannot go along any
way for God without the presence and help of a ministering
angel from God.
The world may scoff at this but believers draw strength
from it. They trust and oftentimes prove that in true meditation the
angels of God stand nearby.
When an angel of the Lord tells us to get up and get
going, we are given the freedom to do it.
Peter’s experience in prison demonstrates that when we are
held in bondage to anything.
God can and will (if we believe) lift us up and set us
free.
Pray With Me
O God, I thank You for all great and glowing
thoughts. As every good and perfect gift comes from You, so all thought of
pure love and unblemished beauty are Yours to give …. and ours to enjoy. Forgive
me that too often …·
o I have seen Your right and thought wrong.
o I have seen Your beauty and thought ugliness.
o I have seen Your faithful provision and thought anxiety.
o I have seen Your gift of a second chance and thought
revenge.
Help me to see Your thoughts expressed in all that is good
and true and beautiful, and beyond all this give me the grace of some
ministering angel to turn my thoughts toward the right and to shield my
thoughts from the wrong.
Yes, with Joseph, even in times of perplexity and deep
concerns, may my thoughts be so centered on Your unfailing goodness that
meditation shall be a heavenly “ladder” down which angels of light and mercy
may come.
O God, keep my thoughts so holy and loving that the
appearing of angels may not seem strange nor their message go unheard.
In the name of Jesus who also knew the grace of
ministering angels. Amen.
Moving On In The Life Of Prayer
In Copley Square, Boston, stands a statue that give a
silent but eloquent witness. It portrays Phillips Brooks, great preacher
of the last century, looking out across the busy circle of traffic.
In the shadows behind him there is a slightly elevated
figure which can be easily identified as the Christ and one hand reaches out to
rest gently on the shoulder of His faithful servant, Phillips Brooks.
In a similar fashion there is a nearby angel who ministers
to us and guards us and sometimes, as with Peter, “strikes” us to get us up and
get us going.
When things go well and life is at its
exhilarating best, when things are very humdrum and life is painfully
commonplace, when we have reached the end of our rope perplexed, bewildered and
void of hope, think about this:
God has an angel for you, to keep you in all your ways.
Remember, “while he (Joseph) thought, the angel
appeared.”
Pray faithfully. Angels are nearer than we think
and never too busy or too late.
William
Sabin Stoddard, was born and grew up in Rochesther, New York. He attended
Haverford College and Princeton Seminary, graduating in 1940. He was an
Assistant Pastor and Youth Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania and then Senior Pastor at Homestead Presbyterian Church until late
1947 when he became Senior Pastor at Angeles Mesa Presbyterian Church in Los
Angeles, California. In 1960 he was asked to become the Senior Pastor at
Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church in the Bay Area, retiring in 1976.
During the ensuring years he was the Protestant Chaplain on both the
Royal Viking Line and Holland America Cruise Lines. He and his wife,
Henrietta, ministered to many during those years on the sea.
He received an honorary
doctorate from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington where he served on
their Board of Trustees.
Dr. Stoddard’s wife Henrietta
went to be with her Lord in 1993. They had been married 54 years.
They had four children, all now living and serving their Lord in various
capacities. Dr. Stoddard and Henrietta both lived long enough to hold the
first of their fourth generation great-grandchildren.
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