Tuesday, May 30, 2017, 6:03 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Draw Me Close.” Speak, Lord, your words
to my heart. I read Psalm 27 (Select
vv. ESV).
The Lord Is
(vv. 1-3)
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I
fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom
shall I be afraid?
When evildoers assail me
to eat up my
flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
it is they
who stumble and fall.
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart
shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will
be confident.
Who are our enemies? If we
are followers of Jesus Christ, crucified with him in death to sin, and risen
with him to newness of life, our enemies are Satan and his many hordes. Satan
has followers, too, and they do his bidding in coming against Jesus Christ, his
Word, his gospel, and his servants. And, many of them have infiltrated the
church, too. They are the wolves in sheep’s clothing, disguising themselves as
apostles of Christ, and as servants of righteousness, but truly they are among
us to steal, to kill and to destroy. So, they might be pastors, teachers,
elders, other professors of Christ, politicians, parents, children, neighbors, and/or
website monitors.
They are there to spy on our
freedom in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves again to depravity. So, they
dilute the gospel message of salvation to appeal to human flesh and to appease
the world. They preach (teach, share) feel-good messages which tickle itching
ears, which say what people want to hear, not what they NEED to hear, for the
truth offends. Many of them are part of the New World Order and are working
together to bring the people of the world into unity with them in thought, word
and deed. Their goal is to get us to forsake all which divides us as the people
of the world, and to get us to compromise our faith and convictions in order to
unite as ONE voice, ONE heart and ONE mind, across the globe, with this one
world religion.
On a global political (or
religious) level, they utilize the media to spread their lies and deceptions in
order to deceive and to convince naïve minds. Because so many people regularly
watch TV, and especially believe what they see on TV news (or on the internet),
they are able to deceive people by the thousands or by the millions, or even
greater. TV, especially, can be very hypnotic, and thus is one of Satan’s
avenues for tricking people into accepting lies as truth, and truth as lies. So,
we need to be very discerning. As followers of Jesus, we need to be wise, and
not so trusting of humans, but we should take everything to the Lord in prayer,
because not everything that appears to be real is real. So many things can be
faked now days.
Basically, these enemies are
out to destroy us either through trickery, deception, manipulation, setting
traps for us to fall into, or via outright persecution, abuse, false
accusations, imprisonment or through death. Their goal is to stop the spreading
of the gospel as was taught by Jesus and by his NT apostles. If they can’t stop
us one way, they will try another until something works, or until they kill us.
Yet, we have no reason to
fear any of them, because we know that our Lord is completely sovereign (in
control) over all he has made, and over every power known to man. They may try
to take advantage of us, but we don’t let them, and, instead, we turn to our
Lord for help, for counsel, for wisdom and for discernment to know truth from
error, and to know how to respond to the enemy’s attempts to take us down. We
must rely on the Lord for our strength, and, if need be, we must stand alone
against the mass of voices which may try to convince us to retreat. We have to
stand on truth even if all forsake us and betray us, for the Lord is our light
and salvation, not man.
Seek His Face
(vv. 7-10)
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
be gracious
to me and answer me!
You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face,
Lord, do I seek.”
Hide not
your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
O you who
have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
O God of my
salvation!
For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the Lord
will take me in.
When our enemies come against
us, which they will, instead of responding with our flesh, we need to seek God’s
face. We need to cry out to God in our suffering, trusting him to give us all
we need to endure and to keep pressing on. Yet, there will be times when we may
not get an immediate reply to our cries for help, and we may even feel as
though God is absent from us, but those are lies of the enemy to try to make us
afraid. We must know that our God will never abandon us. He will never leave us
or forsake us, so we should not fear those times when it feels like he is not
near us, but we must persevere in what we know, and keep seeking his face. Then,
we must trust him, rest in him, believe him, hold on to HIM, and not give up. Although
others will forsake us and betray us, our Lord will take us under his wings.
A Level Path
(vv. 11-14)
Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me
on a level path
because of
my enemies.
Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
for false
witnesses have risen against me,
and they
breathe out violence.
I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the
Lord
in the land
of the living!
Wait for the Lord;
be strong,
and let your heart take courage;
wait for the
Lord!
So, how to respond to the
enemy’s attacks against us? Instead of being afraid, we turn to the Lord, and
we ask him to teach us his ways and to lead us on a level path. A level path is
upright, honest, pure, and unadulterated by the world. Instead of yielding to
these voices, which try to talk us into compromising our faith, we set our
faces like flint, and we determine to keep on walking in the Spirit in following
our Lord in his service, despite all opposition waged against us. We cannot let
false accusations, tricks, traps or persecutions break us, but instead we must
commit our lives to our Lord, pray to him for help, and trust him to work in and
through our lives.
And, we must continue to hold
on to the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus, keeping our eyes focused on Jesus
and on the goal that is set before us, which is to live holy lives, pleasing to
God, and which is to be the Lord’s servants and witnesses in ministering his
grace and his love to all people. And, when things get tough, which they will,
we must wait for God to move on our behalf, be strong in the Lord, take
courage, and wait on the Lord.
Draw Me Close To You / Donnie McClurkin
Draw me close to You
Never let me go
I lay it all down again…
You're all I want
You're all I've ever needed…
Help me know You are near
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