Redeem Me From Human Oppression

“Your word is a lamp for my feet,

    a light on my path.”

“My heart is set on keeping your decrees

    to the very end.”

“Direct my footsteps according to your word;

    let no sin rule over me.

Redeem me from human oppression,

    that I may obey your precepts.

Make your face shine on your servant

    and teach me your decrees.

Streams of tears flow from my eyes,

    for your law is not obeyed.” (Psalms 119:105,112,133-136 NIV)

When we live on this earth in these flesh bodies we are going to have pain and sorrows. That is just part of life. And when we believe in Jesus Christ to be Lord (Owner-Master) and Savior of our lives, and we are walking with him in fellowship with him and in obedience to his commands in holy living, we are going to face persecutions and rejections, and we will be hated and mistreated by some, while we will be ignored and cast aside by others. And we will have those who will try to trip us up and to lead us back into sin.

For Jesus Christ told us that if we follow him with our lives that his enemies will be our enemies. And his enemies are not just those who refuse to believe in him, but they are also all who profess faith in him, but who have continued to walk in deliberate and habitual and sometimes premeditated sin against the Lord, and who will not walk according to his commandments, and who will not live morally pure, upright, godly, faithful, and honest lives, in daily practice, although not necessarily in absolute perfection.

So, when the word of the Lord is, in truth, the lamp (light, guide) for our walks of faith, and when our hearts are truly set on (fixed on) keeping (obeying) his decrees (commands under the New Covenant), and to the very end, without wavering, and without bouncing back and forth, we are going to face rejection and persecution even from others who profess to be our brothers and sisters in Christ, and even from pastors of “churches,” and even from our family members, for this is what Jesus faced, in essence.

But we are not to let that dishearten us. We are not to be afraid. And we are not to retreat out of fear of what others think of us or say about us or out of fear of what they will (or might) do or are doing to us. For we should never allow the opinions of other people to persuade us to forsake our Lord and to go back into sin and to run away from being hated and persecuted. I did that for a period of time in my life, sadly so, because I just kept getting one beating after another after another, and so I gave up for a period of time.

But by the grace of God, the Lord brought me back into right relationship with him – all glory to His Name! And he taught me to stand strong in the face of all opposition, and to keep speaking the truth of his word, regardless of what others think of me or say about me or how they treat me. For it is the truth of God’s word that sets people free, not the lies that so many people are feeding into their minds and hearts today. And the Lord has kept me on that steady course for the past 22 years, at least.

So, to be redeemed from human oppression doesn’t necessarily mean that we are going to be rescued physically from human oppression. In fact, the closer our walks with the Lord, and the greater our commitment to following the Lord and to walk in his footsteps, the greater the opposition will be. For this is what Jesus and his NT apostles promised us. And if we are not being persecuted for the sake of the name of Jesus, or for the sake of the gospel, or for the sake of righteousness, then we should begin to wonder why.

But the Lord will redeem us in a different way. He will deliver us out of the fear of our enemies, and out of letting their treatment of us determine the path that we will take. And he will give us the courage and the confidence in the Lord that we need to carry on in our walks of faith and obedience to our Lord, despite how we are treated in return. He will fill us with his peace and his joy even in the midst of much sorrow and suffering so that we can count it all joy that we are considered worthy to suffer for the sake of our Lord.

But this doesn’t mean that we will not still feel it when others stomp on our hearts and when they treat us as though we don’t matter and as though they wish that we would just disappear from the face of the earth. And this doesn’t mean that we won’t still cry many tears over the many who are still walking in the ways of the flesh and in sin and who refuse to repent of their sins and to turn away from them and to now follow the Lord in obedience to his commands. For when we stop feeling, we are dead.

So, don’t be afraid to suffer for the sake of righteousness, and for the sake of the gospel of Christ, and for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ. And don’t let how other people treat you determine who you become and what you do and how you live your life. Give everything over to the Lord Jesus, and keep walking in his ways and in his truth, and trust him fully with your lives and with your circumstances. And then just do as he commands and share the truth of the gospel and also refute the enemy’s lies.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

Video Talk

https://youtu.be/udsxYQGrVeo

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Hear My Cry

By G. M. Eldridge

When my soul is worn and weary

And my eyes are filled with grief,

When my hands in desperation

Reach to heaven for relief,

Would I find the words there waiting

If I had the strength to start?

Could a mortal tongue interpret

All the sorrow of a heart?

Spirit, search me in my weakness,

And discern this growing gray.

Intercede in understanding,

Hear the things I cannot say.

Hear my cry, heav’nly Father,

You have known my ev’ry pain.

You have seen all my sorrow,

Hear my cry once again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOJiTN56xTg

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