Soldiers of Christ Arise / Charles Wesley
Soldiers of Christ, arise, and put your armor on,
Strong in the strength which God supplies through His eternal Son.
Strong in the Lord of Hosts, and in His mighty power,
Who in the strength of Jesus trusts is more than conqueror.
Stand then in His great might, with all His strength endued,
But take, to arm you for the fight, the panoply of God;
That, having all things done, and all your conflicts passed,
Ye may o’ercome through Christ alone and stand entire at last.
Leave no unguarded place, no weakness of the soul;
Take every virtue, every grace, and fortify the whole.
From strength to strength go on; wrestle, and fight, and pray;
Tread all the powers of darkness down and win the well-fought day.
This last stanza, in particular, was standing out to me. So, as I read through the passages of scripture in Matthew where I had left off reading yesterday, I knew that the passage of scripture today was to have something to do with “treading all the powers of darkness down.” I finished reading Matthew 13 and I read Matthew 14. When I got to vv. 22-36 about the story of Jesus walking on the water, I knew that this was the passage of scripture the Lord would have me focus on today, for me personally, as well as for me to share.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Matthew 14:22-36:
Jesus Walks on the Water
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
34 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him 36 and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.
Mark and John (the gospels) also recorded this account of Jesus walking on the water. Mark said, concerning the disciples in the boat, that Jesus “saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.” In the side margin of my Bible next to this passage in Mark, I had written previously: “Don’t strain at the oars. Remember: God is in control!” I believe that phrase is significant to what the Lord would want to teach me today and, to what he would have me to share, so I have titled this writing with that phrase.
My Understanding: This morning, before I even opened my Bible to read, I was praying to the Lord and asking him to speak to my heart. I, all of a sudden, came to the realization that there was something I had been worrying over and had just not seen it as thus, so I had to confess to the Lord my failure to trust in his complete sovereignty over that situation, and I then surrendered that circumstance and the people and/or group to the Lord, trusting Him to work it all out according to His plan and purpose. Then, I read the story of Jesus walking on the water and the disciples “straining at the oars,” and I realized that is what I had been doing, too. I was focused on the wind and the waves and didn’t notice Jesus walking on the water, either. So, I was reminded today to keep my eyes on Jesus and not on the waves.
When we focus our attention on the waves of life, i.e. our struggles, we often lose sight of Jesus walking to us on the water. That leaves us vulnerable to the enemy to attack us in our weakness and to get us looking at the waves instead of looking at Jesus. This last stanza of this song has great words! It tells us to leave no unguarded place, no weakness of the soul. When we are straining at the oars, i.e. when we are trying to resolve the situations of our lives in our own strength, or when we are worrying over problems in our lives instead of placing our complete faith and trust in the Lord, then that leaves us unguarded and vulnerable for the enemy to pound the waves even harder against us. That is why we must put our spiritual armor on daily, and we must trust in the strength of the Lord so that we can “tread all the powers of darkness down” and “win the well-fought day.”
The passage in Matthew says that Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him, and then he dismissed the crowd and he went to a mountainside to pray. Jesus is God. He knew what was going to happen to his disciples. He knew that he was sending them into this storm and that the waves and the wind would be against them. And, also, the Bible tells us that Jesus told his disciples what they would face (the winds and waves) when they chose to be his followers, too (Ref: Matthew 10). He said they would be flogged, mocked, ridiculed, persecuted, rejected and killed for the sake of His Name and for the sake of the gospel. He told them he was sending them out like sheep among wolves. He informed them that brother would betray brother to death and that they would be hated by everyone because of Jesus. He disclosed to them that they may even be accused of being of Satan, as he was accused. And, then he told them that the cost of following Jesus was to take up their cross daily (to die daily to their old lives) and to follow him and to lose their lives (selfish wills) for him and for the sake of the gospel if they wanted to find their lives. Those are some strong winds and waves they were up against! And, as followers of Jesus Christ, we, too, are up against those same winds and waves, yet we must remain faithful.
When the disciples were up against these “winds and waves,” Jesus came walking to them on the water. The water is often a picture of the Holy Spirit. Walking is frequently a word used to illustrate us living and conducting our lives in a particular way. Jesus walked his life in the Spirit of God because he was/is God. And, he has given us the Holy Spirit within those who truly put their hope and trust in Him as Savior and Lord of their lives, so that we, too, can walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the desires of the flesh that war against us.
When we go through our “waves and winds” of life, i.e. life’s difficulties, attacks of the enemy (Satan), trials and tribulations, etc., we must not focus on the winds and waves as the disciples did. We must not “strain at the oars,” trying to solve the problems ourselves. We must not take our eyes off Jesus, as did Peter, and then sink right into life’s circumstances and allow them to drown us rather than us rising above them in the strength of the Lord and walking in the Spirit and ‘treading the powers of darkness down’.
Jesus told the disciples, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Yet, Peter questioned that when he said, “If it’s you then…” How many times do we do that? Jesus gives us his assurances of his presence with us, and yet we want signs that it really is him. Jesus allowed Peter to come to him, but because of Peter’s lack of faith, he took his eyes off Jesus and thus he sank right down into his predicament as it enveloped him. Yet, Peter had the sense to see this and to call upon Jesus to save him, and Jesus lifted him above his distress. Then, as the two of them entered the boat together, Jesus calmed the waves and the winds. This teaches us that we need Jesus walking beside us, getting into our circumstances with us, if we want to see him calm the winds and the waves within us. We need to know that IN our difficulties HE is saying to us, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid!”
So, when we are faced with troubled circumstances, or we are going through trials and tribulations; i.e. when we are confronted with the very “waves and winds” of life that Jesus told his disciples that they would face if they were to follow Him, we need to look up and see Jesus in those difficulties. We need to see him walking to us, and we need to invite him into our boats (our lives; our world; our situations) so that he can calm the winds and the waves. There is a song that says that sometimes he calms the storm and other times he calms his child. Sometimes the storms he calms are the ones raging within us. He does not necessarily remove us from the situations of life, but rather he delivers us through those challenges. We just need to see him and we need to invite him into our lives and into our “waves” and to let him bring His peace within us.
Here I Am To Worship / Chris Tomlin
Light of the world
You stepped down into darkness.
Opened my eyes, let me see.
Beauty that made this heart adore You
Hope of a life spent with You
Here I am to worship,
Here I am to bow down,
Here I am to say that You're my God
You're altogether lovely
Altogether worthy,
Altogether wonderful to me…
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