Those Who Seek to Destroy My Life

“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;

    my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you,

    as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

    beholding your power and glory.

Because your steadfast love is better than life,

    my lips will praise you.

So I will bless you as long as I live;

    in your name I will lift up my hands.” (Psalms 63:1-4 ESV)

If you are following after a god who promises you a life of ease and comfort, and all good things that this world has to offer, you are “barking up the wrong tree.” If you are following after a god who promises you that all will go well with you and that you will never have to suffer in this life, you are following the wrong god. And if you are believing in a god who accepts you right where you are, even if you are living in gross sin and rebellion against him, who never corrects you nor disciplines you, he is not the one true God.

As human beings who are flesh and blood, and who live on a fallen earth, we are going to have pain, suffering, and hardships. And we will face disasters and trials and tribulations. Some of us will be faced with wars and with the persecution and the murdering of those we love. Others will be faced with tragedies brought upon by natural (or geoengineered) disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, floods, famine, drought, and the like, and we may lose loved ones to death, our homes, and/or our properties.

Yet our love and our service and our dedication to our Lord must not be conditional upon our circumstances. We are to praise him even in the storms of life. We are to seek him even in the bleakest of times, and especially in those times. For he is not a grandfather or a genie in the sky there to grant our every desire, as many would have you believe. His main goal with us is to humble us and to make us to be more like Jesus in character, and to get us to bow the knee to him in humble submission to his will for our lives.

“My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,

    and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,

when I remember you upon my bed,

    and meditate on you in the watches of the night;

for you have been my help,

    and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

My soul clings to you;

    your right hand upholds me.” (Psalms 63:5-8 ESV)

Remember what it says in the 23rd Psalm? 

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

    I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

    your rod and your staff,

    they comfort me.” (v. 4)

No matter what we are going through or what we are suffering in this life, if we have died with Christ to sin, by faith in him, and if we are now walking in obedience to his commands, by his Spirit, he will not leave us nor forsake us, even if it feels sometimes as though he is not there with us. He will not abandon us. We cannot rely on our feelings. But he is going to allow us to go through trials and tribulations to test our faith, in order to strengthen us in our walks of faith and obedience to him, for life is going to get harder soon. 

So we need to learn to thank him and to praise him even in the storms of life, even if we lose all that we have in the way of earthly possessions. And this is exactly where many people are all over the world. Many are being displaced, and their homes are being taken from them, and their loved ones are being murdered, and their own lives are being threatened. They have nowhere to go. They are homeless and destitute and without resources. But the Lord will be our help. We just need to give it all over to him.

For nothing can happen to us unless God allows it to happen. And if he allows it to happen, he will walk us through it. For his goal is our holiness and our righteousness and our walks of obedience to his commands and our service to him as our only Lord, and our salvation from sin. And Jesus told us that if we follow him with our lives that we should expect to be hated and mistreated as he was. And he warned us of the end times when all sorts of horrible stuff would happen to us, which is happening to many already.

“But those who seek to destroy my life

    shall go down into the depths of the earth;

they shall be given over to the power of the sword;

    they shall be a portion for jackals.

But the king shall rejoice in God;

    all who swear by him shall exult,

    for the mouths of liars will be stopped.” (Psalms 63:9-11 ESV)

Do we have enemies? If we are walking with the Lord in obedience to his commands, and if we are dying to sin daily, and if we are sharing the truth of the gospel with the people of the world, and especially if we are refuting the lies of the enemy, then yes. If we are living holy lives unto the Lord in purity of devotion to him, in moral purity, honesty, and faithfulness to God, then yes. And if we are no longer conformed to the ways of this sinful world, but we are living for Jesus, to do his will, yes, we will have enemies.

And our enemies could be members of our own households, of our own families. And they could be our neighbors or people we work with or that we attend church gatherings with, including they could be pastors and elders of “church” congregations. And they could be our government heads, or CEOs of corporations, or doctors and lawyers and insurance brokers, etc. Or they could be the pharmaceutical industrial complex, or world leaders, or people we trust and we believe are good and kind, but who may be devils at heart.

For the Scriptures warned us about these last days before the return of Christ. They told us the horrible conditions that we would be faced with. They told us not to put our trust in other humans and that other humans may hate and betray us, even with a kiss. They warned us about false christs and false prophets and teachers and all the deception that is now taking place. And they teach us to test everything and everyone and to not allow ourselves to be deceived. So we need to take these words to heart.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-39; Matt 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-19; John 15:1-21; John 16:33; John 17:14; Acts 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Eph 6:10-20; 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]

My Jesus, My Savior 

 

By Michael W. Smith

My Jesus, My Saviour,

Lord, there is none like you,

All of my days, I want to praise

The wonders of Your mighty love.

My comfort, my shelter, 

Tower of refuge and strength 

Let every breath, all that I am 

Never cease to worship You.

Shout to the Lord, all the earth let us sing, 

Power and majesty, praise to the King!

Mountains bow down and the seas will roar, 

At the sound of your name!

I sing for joy at the work of your hands, 

Forever I'll love you, forever I'll stand 

Nothing compares to the promise I have in You.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqSQvoinDE4 

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