Our Daily Bread: Called to ServeSample

Best Defense

Turn your ear to listen to me; rescue me quickly. —Psalm 31:2

During the tense days of the Montgomery Boycott, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. couldn’t sleep. A threatening phone call had shaken him. So he prayed, “I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But Lord, I must confess that I’m weak now, I’m faltering. I’m losing my courage. Now, I am afraid. . . . The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. . . . I can’t face it alone.”

Dr. King later wrote, “At that moment I experienced the presence of the Divine as I never experienced Him before. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying, ‘Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever.’ Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.”

The rest is history. Dr. King’s God-honoring legacy is one that anticipates a day when all people will be free from the damage of racism and prejudice.

A favorite song of Dr. King’s was Tommy Dorsey’s “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.” He well identified with the songwriter’s plea for God to carry him through the storm. If we face opposition when we try to do what’s right, we too must cry out to the Lord. He alone is our “rock of protection, a fortress where I shall be safe” (Psalm 31:2). He is our strength and protection, and our best defense and He will lead us home. 

Dave Egner

When we trust the power of God, we experience peace, not panic.