Psalms 119:161-168 ESV
“Princes persecute me without cause,
but my heart stands in awe of your words.
I rejoice at your word
like one who finds great spoil.
I hate and abhor falsehood,
but I love your law.
Seven times a day I praise you
for your righteous rules.
Great peace have those who love your law;
nothing can make them stumble.
I hope for your salvation, O Lord,
and I do your commandments.
My soul keeps your testimonies;
I love them exceedingly.
I keep your precepts and testimonies,
for all my ways are before you.”
The Sword of the Spirit
If we are following Jesus Christ with wholehearted devotion,
we will be persecuted for our walks of faith in Jesus Christ and for our stand
on his truth and righteousness. And to be persecuted is to be
oppressed, hounded, harassed, bullied, and/or tormented, especially because we
are not like the world, because Jesus called us to live holy lives unlike the
world.
But when we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, we need
to pray, and we need to turn to the word of God. And we need to stand on the
truth of Scripture and not give way to fear or to intimidation. For, part of
our spiritual armor God has given us to fight off the attacks of the enemy is
the word of God, so we are to fight Satan’s lies with the truth of God’s word.
But we don’t use the Word of God to try to prove we are
right, or to win an argument, or to try to prove that we know more than others.
We use the word of God to go after Satan’s lies so that we do not cave to them
and so that others are not led astray by them, either.
But the word of God is not just a tactical weapon to defeat
Satan and his lies. It is life to us who love God and who love his word. It is
like finding a treasure chest filled with gold, only much better than gold. For,
the word of God is God speaking to us, and if we love to hear him speak, we
will love the Scriptures.
I Hate Lies
I detest lies! I don’t like it at all when people lie to me.
And I don’t like it when they tell lies about me. But most of all I don’t like
it one bit when they lie about God, about Jesus, and about the gospel of our
salvation, and when they tell people that God requires no repentance or obedience
to him, so they can live however they want, but that they can still go to
heaven.
For, lies hurt people. They betray trust. They get other
people to dislike someone for no reason. They lead people to follow the wrong
people and to reject the right people. They get people to attack good and to
accept evil. They get people to be afraid and to not trust God, too. And they
can get people to follow a “pied piper” to their deaths.
So, as followers of Jesus, we need to be discerners of
falsehood. We need to pray to the Lord that we would not accept everything we
hear as truth without first taking it to the Lord in prayer and in the reading
of his word (in context) so that we can discern truth from lies. We need to
pray that the Spirit of truth would make known to us what is truth and what are
lies.
And the more we walk in close fellowship with our Lord, and
we love his word, and we study it (in context), and we follow what it says,
under the New Covenant relationship we have with God, the more we will have
wisdom and discernment from God to recognize deception and manipulations of
truth and trickery and to be able to confront the lies with the truth.
Hope and Praise
Life is going to kick us hard sometimes. People will lie to
us. They will betray us. They will attack us and our faith. People will hate
and dislike and reject us. And they may turn others against us. And people won’t
like us because we are too serious about God, and we aren’t worldly enough for
them.
But we must not let that get to us. We must turn that back
into praise to God. Singing songs of praise and thanksgiving are great! Even
singing songs of Spiritual warfare or of victory in Jesus and of what Jesus did
for us is wonderful! Satan will fight us hard sometimes, for he hopes to weaken
us, but we must keep looking to our Lord for our help and support.
The Word of God will give us much comfort and encouragement.
In his word are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The word of God is
filled with lessons on love, forgiveness, purity, sinful addiction, overcoming
sin, living in victory, comfort in sorrow, praise, and thanksgiving, and most
importantly it teaches us the gospel and God’s will for our lives.
In the word of God we find hope and assurance in Christ. We
learn what God requires of us in the way of holiness and righteousness, by his
grace, and in his strength and power. We learn the importance of obeying his
commandments (New Covenant), and what it means to live holy and godly lives for
the glory and praise of God.
If we love and obey God’s word (under the New Covenant), we
have great peace, and we have great victory over sin, and we can walk in
holiness in the power of God’s Spirit. And we have the hope of salvation from
sin and eternal life with God, all because of God’s grace to us which instructs
us to say “No!” to sin and “Yes!” to God.
We know that we know God and that we are the Lord’s and that
we have salvation by his grace, and that we are delivered from our bondage to
sin so that we can now walk in his righteousness. So, we also know we have the
hope of eternal life with God because of what Jesus did for us and because we
keep his word, and we do what he says.
But many people are falling for the lies of Satan, and they
are believing in a false gospel which gives people a false hope of salvation
based on a lie. And the lie tells them that they can “believe” in Jesus and
still live in their sins and that they don’t have to obey God or submit to
Christ as Lord. But the truth of God’s word says if we walk in sin, we will die
in our sins.
So, make certain that the hope you are holding on to is
based on the truth of God’s word and not on a lie. For, if you sow to please
the flesh, from the flesh you will reap corruption. But if you sow to please
the Spirit, from the Spirit you will reap eternal life. So sow to the Spirit
and not to the flesh and you can hold on to the hope of your salvation and eternal
life with God.
Before
the Throne of God Above
Charitie L. Bancroft
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea,
A great High Priest whose name is
“Love,”
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart,
I know that while in heav’n He stands,
No tongue can bed me thence depart.
When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free,
For God, the Just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
Behold Him there! The risen Lamb,
My perfect, spotless Righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace!
One with Himself I cannot die,
My soul is purchased with His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ, My Savior and my God.
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