Thursday, October 6, 2016, 12:00 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “For Our Nation.” Speak, Lord, your
words to my heart. I read Psalm 31
(Select vv. NASB).
Into Your Hand
(vv. 1-5)
In You, O Lord, I have taken refuge;
Let me never be ashamed;
In Your righteousness deliver me.
Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly;
Be to me a rock of strength,
A stronghold to save me.
For You are my rock and my fortress;
For Your name’s sake You will lead me and guide me.
You will pull me out of the net which they have
secretly laid for me,
For You are my strength.
Into Your hand I commit my spirit;
You have ransomed me, O Lord, God of truth.
We all have enemies – some of
us more than others. We all have people who just don’t like us, no matter what
we do. Some of them may act as our enemies because of jealousy and/or
resentment towards us, as was the case with Jesus’ persecutors. And, they may
do to us what Jesus’ opponents did to him, i.e. they may set a trap for us,
hoping that we will fall, because they want us to fall so that we will be just
like them.
So, we need to call on our
Lord, pray for his spiritual protection over us, and pray for wisdom and discernment
so that we don’t fall into their traps. We must take refuge in the Lord at all
times, but especially when our enemy is fiercely coming against us. And, we
must never give way to fear, but daily we must put on the armor of God with
which to fight off Satan’s evil attacks against us, because he is the one who
is behind all this persecution and setting of traps, is he not?
They Schemed
(vv. 11-13)
Because of all my adversaries, I have become a
reproach,
Especially to my neighbors,
And an object of dread to my acquaintances;
Those who see me in the street flee from me.
I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind;
I am like a broken vessel.
For I have heard the slander of many,
Terror is on every side;
While they took counsel together against me,
They schemed to take away my life.
Who does Satan hate the most?
God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Who or what does he hate second most? Jesus’
followers, i.e. his saints, and the gospel of our salvation, as was taught by
Jesus and his NT apostles.
Satan rebelled against God in
heaven because he wanted to be God, so he was banished, along with many of the
angels in heaven who followed after him. Then, he went after God’s people, and
then Jesus, who was the promised seed of Abraham, the Messiah of the people, the
Son of God, and God, in order to try to take them out, or to try to trip them
up and/or to convince them to follow him, instead. Satan’s followers are his
servants to do his bidding in scheming to take us out or to try to persuade us
to go his way. So, he will “pull out all the stops,” i.e. he will do everything
he can to achieve his goal of destroying Jesus, his gospel, and his messengers.
One of Satan’s biggest
weapons against us is his lies and deceptions, and his manipulations of truth.
He loves gossip, because gossip destroys people’s reputations. He loves
slander, as well, which is false accusations against people with willful intent
to harm them. We live in a society here in America of very gullible people who
are easily persuaded by lies and deceptions, and thus many Americans buy into
lies without question as to whether or not what they just heard or read, or
thought they saw, is actually true. People who indulge in much television, as
well, are very susceptible to Satan’s lies, and they can be very easily
persuaded to accept them as truth just because someone they trusted said it was
so, or because an image on TV made it look like it was real. TV can be very
hypnotic, and deceptive, too.
Presently there is a global
campaign against the Lord’s true servants and witnesses, and against the gospel
as taught by Jesus and his NT apostles. World powers are scheming against us.
They are making a case against us that we are bigoted, hatemongers, and intolerant,
and that we are religious extremists (in the same category as terrorists) who
must be reprogrammed or destroyed, either through slander or through death,
etc. Their basis for these accusations is, in reality, that we teach what Jesus
and his NT apostles taught about sin, hell, damnation, forgiveness, repentance
and obedience to Christ and submission to his cross. Their goal is to bring the
people of the world together as one under one global government and under a
one-world religion which is accepting of all religions and all walks of life.
As for Me
(vv. 14-18)
But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord,
I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in Your hand;
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those
who persecute me.
Make Your face to shine upon Your servant;
Save me in Your lovingkindness.
Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I call upon
You;
Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in
Sheol.
Let the lying lips be mute,
Which speak arrogantly against the righteous
With pride and contempt.
So, when our adversary comes
against us to attempt to undo us, we must put our hope and trust in God to
deliver us from his attacks against us. God may deliver us by removing the
attacks, and by vindicating us and our reputations, which will certainly happen
one day, or he may deliver us through our trials by giving us his peace and
assurance, his wisdom, and his power and strength to keep going and to keep
doing his will despite all opposing forces against us.
When going through all of
life’s challenges, we must believe in God’s sovereignty over our lives. Suffice
it to say, it is imperative that we understand that our God is all powerful,
and that he is completely in control of all things, and that he has power over
every authority on the earth and in the spiritual realms. We need to see our
lives from the perspective that our times here on this earth are in his hands,
and we must trust him in all things, and follow his lead. We must not give way
to fear of circumstances or enemies, because they are not more powerful than
God! He reigns supreme!
Satan wants to make us afraid
and to convince us that he is greater than our God, and that he is to be feared
above all. He wants us to feel powerless against his evil attacks, and for us
to buckle under the weight of it all. And, he has gotten many, many people
there, even those who know Jesus, or who profess to trust in Jesus Christ.
I can still recall the day in
the year 1982 when I felt the weight of Satan’s attacks against me via people
telling me lies. So, I withdrew and I just escaped into a fantasy world. Then,
one day, I was reading the story of Jonah to my children and God spoke so
clearly to my heart that I was being like Jonah, in a way, in that I was
running away from God. So, he told me to get back in there and to “fight this
through.” And, I replied, “But God, you don’t understand!” I was convinced that
these people had power over me over which God could not rescue me. Oh, how
wrong I was! So, I obeyed God, and I did “fight it through,” via putting on the
spiritual armor of God, and God delivered me out of the lion’s mouth and set me
free.
Love the Lord
(vv. 23-24)
O love the Lord, all you His godly ones!
The Lord preserves the faithful
And fully recompenses the proud doer.
Be strong and let your heart take courage,
All you who hope in the Lord.
I believe that scripture teaches
that God allows or that he causes certain trials to come into our lives to test
us, to mature us in our walks of faith, to make us holy, and to teach us to
rely on him and not on ourselves, etc. I believe he also exercises divine
discipline on his children, at times, via trials, in order to get our
attention, because we have forgotten our first love and have gone off to chase
after idols of human making. And, so he gently disciplines us in order to bring
us back into pure fellowship with him.
I believe, as well, that
through the tribulations God brings or allows on this earth, that he is calling
out, not only to his wayward children, but to the people of this world who are
lost in their sins, who need to believe in him for salvation. He is calling
them to repent of their sins and to turn to follow him in obedience and in
surrender to his will for their lives. For, when we believe in Jesus Christ, we
are to be crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we are resurrected with
Christ in newness of life, “created to be like God in true righteousness and
holiness” (Eph. 4:24). Jesus died, not just so we could be forgiven of our
sins, escape hell, and have the promise of heaven when we die. He died that we
might die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24).
To love God, thus, is not
some mushy gushy feeling we have for him. It is also not to “do” for God out of
our own choosing as to what we will “do,” hoping he will be pleased. In other
words, even the lost of this world know how to do good deeds. And, even the
demons believe, and they shudder. Our salvation means death to our old lives of
living according to our sinful flesh, and it means new birth to a living hope,
and living to Christ’s righteousness and holiness. Jesus died that we might no
longer live for ourselves, but for him who gave his life up for us (2 Co.
5:15). Loving God means obeying him and keeping his word and no longer walking
according to our sinful ways, but walking according to (in agreement with) the
Spirit.
So, stop believing Satan’s
lies, daily put on the armor of God, follow your Lord in obedience and
surrender to his will, and trust him fully with your life.
For Our Nation
/ An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is
falling.
Jesus Christ is gently
calling
You to follow Him in all
ways.
Trust Him with your life
today.
Make Him your Lord and your
Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow
Jesus.
He will forgive you of your
sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new
within.
Men betraying: Our trust
fraying.
On our knees to God we’re
praying,
Seeking God to give us
answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all
things.
Nothing from His mind
escaping.
He has all things under His
command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently
calling
You to follow Him in all
ways.
Men deceiving: we’re
believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our
future.
For our wounds He offers
suture.
He is all we need for this
life.
Trust Him with your life
today.
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