Today's scripture: Psalm 17:10-12
King David, the author of Psalm 17, faced enemies—real enemies that wanted to
see him dead. Many times through the psalms he wrote, he cried out for God's
deliverance from those enemies.
We may not face human enemies, but we are certainly under attack. As Paul
wrote, "We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers
of darkness and powers in the spiritual world" (CEV, Ephesians 6:12).
The enemy of our souls, Satan himself, wants nothing more than to keep us from
serving and worshipping God. He knows he's lost the war because I truly believe
we can never lose our salvation, but he can keep us away from God. He can
whisper words of doubt. He can make us question our faith. He can keep us
stagnant, keeping us from growing as children of God.
When we find ourselves doubting or questioning, we need to go immediately to
the One who loves us. We need to open our hearts to Him, sharing what's deep in
our souls. He will cover us with His love and remind us that He is the Victor,
and one day, He will vanquish the enemy (Revelation 20:10).
We can live in hope that God will help us fight the enemy while we're on earth,
and we can rejoice in the assurance that He, one day, will conquer the enemy
forever.
Today’s scripture: 1 Peter 5:8-9
You do know you’re in a battle, right? If you follow Jesus, then the enemy of
our souls, the devil, wants nothing more than to hinder your walk. He’s going
to try to win a battle or two. He’s going to try to keep you from doing what
God has created you to do.
He’ll whisper lies in your ear. He’ll send his minions to put roadblocks in
your way. He’ll use your own areas of weakness to bring you down.
But guess what, my friend. We can resist him. We can bind him in the name of
Jesus.
The key? We must be alert. We must be prepared to combat his lies with the
truth of God’s Word. Just as our Lord Jesus did, when the enemy comes and tells
us those lies, we can use the words of the Scriptures to counter them. That’s
why it’s so very, very important that we know the Bible.
I know I’ve written about this many, many times, but it’s only because I know
from personal experience just how critical it is to spend time every single day
with the Lord. I can’t encourage you enough to make time to read, study, and
meditate on God’s word—every single day. Pray without ceasing. Spend time of
quiet solitude, just listening to God’s voice.
Every single day.
And then you’ll be ready to fight the battle.
Oh, and remember one last very important thing: Yes, the devil is doing his
best to win battles—and he may indeed win sometimes. But we know, beyond doubt,
Who wins the war.
Today's
scripture: Psalm 17:10-12
King David, the author of Psalm 17, faced enemies—real enemies that wanted to
see him dead. Many times through the psalms he wrote, he cried out for God's
deliverance from those enemies.
We may not face human enemies, but we are certainly under attack. As Paul
wrote, "We are fighting against forces
and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual
world" (CEV, Ephesians 6:12).
The enemy of our souls, Satan himself, wants nothing more than to keep us from
serving and worshipping God. He knows he's lost the war because I truly believe
we can never lose our salvation, but he can keep us away from God. He can
whisper words of doubt. He can make us question our faith. He can keep us
stagnant, keeping us from growing as children of God.
When we find ourselves doubting or questioning, we need to go immediately to
the One who loves us. We need to open our hearts to Him, sharing what's deep in
our souls. He will cover us with His love and remind us that He is the Victor,
and one day, He will vanquish the enemy (Revelation 20:10).
We can live in hope that God will help us fight the enemy while we're on earth,
and we can rejoice in the assurance that He, one day, will conquer the enemy forever.
Today's
scripture: Psalm 57:4
I have been very blessed in so many ways. One way is that I've never really had
any enemies. Oh, certainly, I have had people around me who haven't liked me
much, but—at least to my knowledge—no one has ever come after me with
sharp-sword tongues or teeth of spears and arrows.
However, there is one enemy who would love nothing more than to steal my joy
and shake my faith. The "prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2) is intent on keeping God's children from fulfilling their God-given purpose.
He knows he's lost the war with us, but he still wants to win as many battles
as possible. He often works through the enticements of this world to take our focus
off of God.
He's the "father of lies" (John 8:44), and we must "be alert"
because he's wandering about like a "roaring lion, seeking someone to
devour" (1 Peter 5:8). One of the biggest lies he's telling now is that
lust is good. So many people who follow Christ don't see anything wrong with
pre-marital (or even extra-marital) sex. And when the enemy undermines God's
commandments in one area, it makes it somehow easier for us to ignore God's other
commandments.
We may not be surrounded by human enemies, but we are definitely surrounded by
supernatural ones. We need to be God-focused. We need to know His word and
surround ourselves with godly people. We need to seek God's will and His
kingdom (Matthew 6:33). We need to dwell on those good and right things
(Philippians 4:8).
Only then can we combat the lies of the enemy.
Today's
scripture: Ephesians 6:13-17
On Friday, we talked about our being in a battle, and it's so very true. You
don’t need a gun or a tank or a bomb to fight this battle, but you definitely
need to be equipped.
I was encouraged several years ago to pray these verses every morning to
prepare to meet that day’s battles, and although I often neglect to do so, when
I do, it makes a world of difference.
The first piece of
our armor is the belt of truth. God is the only real truth, and when we put on
what Paul calls the "belt of truth," it means we’re going to strive
to be truth-tellers—tellers of God’s truth.
Then we’re to put on the breastplate of righteousness. We aren’t righteous on
our own. In fact, without Christ, we are fallen, frail, sinful creatures. Yet
when we accept the gift of salvation and the forgiveness of our sins, God sees
us as righteous, as cleansed, as pure.
In a suit of Roman armor (don’t think about those big metal suits from medieval
times!), the breastplate covered from the throat to the hipbones. While arms
and legs would remain vulnerable, the vital organs—heart, lungs, stomach—were
protected. When we think about putting on the breastplate of righteousness, we
are protecting our most vulnerable parts—our emotions. We protect our hearts
from the enemy’s lies and the world’s influences. And as we do, we remain clean
before our Lord.
Then it’s the shoes that prepare us with the gospel of peace. And where does
our peace come from? From the gospel. The "peace that surpasses
understanding," as Paul describes in Philippians 4:7, is ours because we
know the Giver of peace. We can choose peace, no matter the circumstance.
We’re then to take up the shield of faith. While the breastplate covered the
most vulnerable parts of a Roman soldier, the shield covered all of him. We’re
not talking about a small handheld shield here. We’re talking about a huge,
hide-covered barrier that a soldier could crouch behind and find protection.
Our shield is our very faith, and we must continue to grow in that faith. The
Message paraphrase of Hebrews 11:1,
says it like this: Faith is “the firm foundation under everything that makes
life worth living. It’s the handle on what we can’t see.” Faith is trusting God
in everything, being confident that He has a perfect plan for each of us. And
the Bible tells us that “… without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he
who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who
seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
Then the helmet of salvation. The helmet protects the head, the center of what
makes us human. We must be ever-careful of what we put in our heads. The Bible
tells us how to keep our minds focused on the right things: “… whatever is
true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything
worthy of praise, dwell on these
things” (Philippians 4:8).
Finally, we hold tightly to the sword of the Spirit—the very word of God. I
can’t begin to tell you how very important this piece of weapon is for keeping
the enemy at bay. If we know His word, if we meditate on His words, we begin to
recognize His will, especially those things that are not His will.
We need to meditate, actually feast on His word. God’s word to us should be like
bread for our bodies. We should delight in His word (Psalm 1:1, 2). And as we
meditate on God’s word, we'll begin to take some words to heart. Memorizing
God’s word is a great way to wield that sword.
So I have to ask … are you equipped for today’s battles?
