His banner over me is love

2

April 11, 2014 by Kara Nichols

 

As I was driving home from my sister’s house yesterday I was consumed with thoughts of dieting and my lack of success lately. Feeling guilty for eating “wrong” foods and also sad knowing the pounds are returning to my body. This is Satan’s greatest tool against me – obsession with self. The more time I spend worrying about calories, the less time I have to spend in relationship with God and those I love.

You’d think that because I recognize the trap I wouldn’t continue to get caught in it, but that’s not the case.

I cried out to God right there on 29 south, a few miles outside of Lovingston. I asked for intervention. For a fresh perspective. Because I know how easy it would be to regain all of the weight I lost. I prayed for self-control, knowing full well that it’s not self-control I need, I need God back in control.

As I was beating myself up God brought to my mind a song that I used to sing as a child. I’m not sure how popular it was or if you will recognize it, but to me in the 80s this was a total hit. One year for my birthday, I was probably 10, I got a VHS tape with music videos and this one was featured. Since I’m not going to sing it for you, here’s a link to the song that I found on Youtube. It’s catchy.

The part of the song that was suddenly playing in my mind goes like this:

He brought me to His banqueting table,
His banner over me is love.
He brought me to His banqueting table,
His banner over me is love.
He brought me to His banqueting table,
His banner over me is love.
His banner over me is love!

I wondered why God would bring up a vision of a banqueting table when I’m trying to make myself like the idea of weighing out 4 ounces of cold chicken. But the more I thought about the song the more I realized what I believe God was trying to tell me. And that is simply this: There will be troubles in this world, but take heart, for I have overcome the world (John 16:33). Not only that, there’s a big party going on in heaven and I’m invited. Only there will I will be free from diets and insecurities. I will rejoice and celebrate. And it’s sooner than I realize. It’s right around the corner!

Jesus invited me to a party to eat good food and drink wine, but look how much time I spend fussing, no – obsessing, over things that in view of eternity, don’t matter one bit. One single bit. Frankly, I’m tired of thinking about dieting probably just as much as you are tired of reading about it.

So get this. Not only does God throw a party where everyone is invited, despite flaws, but His banner is love. One commentary said it this way: It may signify the security and protection of the saints, while in the house of God, and enjoying communion with him, being under the banner of love, with which they are encompassed as a shield; and it may denote the very manifest and visible displays of it, which the church now experienced.

To be honest, when I cried out to him in the car yesterday I was expecting a speech in return, a least a small slice of condemnation. But that’s not what I got. I was reminded of a song from childhood that talks about feasting in the presence of God and how I am covered in His love. When I feel melancholy and at a loss, leave it to God to remind me of his compassion and love and the hope that I have in Him.

I’ll probably need to be reminded of God’s love in the next 10 minutes because I’m human that way. But for this moment, I am so thankful that God gave me that song so that when I’m faced with eating, which happens at least 3 times a day, I don’t have to do it alone. He is with me and I can ponder what the great banquet table is like in heaven. I wonder who I will sit by and if there will be cheesecake.

He escorts me to the banquet hall; it’s obvious how much he loves me. Song of Solomon 2:4