"Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make your way straight before my face."
Psalm 5:8
Many times we don't see our enemies or know what they are up to. They may have advantage against us without our being aware of it. How can we be protected from enemies we don't see?
In this Psalm, David is praying that the Lord LEAD HIM in right paths and make his way straight BECAUSE of his enemies. If you are in danger because of an enemy, you have a resource - the most high God - who will lead you in such a way that the will of the enemy will be thwarted. If you are in danger, the most crucial thing you can do is call upon the name of the Lord praying that he show you the right way to go, so that the will of the enemy will be overturned.
vs 10:
"Let them fall by their own counsels;
cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions,
for they have rebelled against you."
"...let them fall by their own counsels;"
It's not YOU who will gain the victory, but the Lord who fights for you. He can cause them to fall by their own counsels. In the story of David and Goliath, David killed Goliath with Goliath's own sword. In the story of Esther, evil Haman was hung on the very gallows he had erected for righteous Mordecai. God can take the plans of the enemy and cause that enemy to fall by the very devices he arrayed against you.
But for that to happen you have to be walking the correct path, and at times you won't know which way to turn. In circumstances like this, call upon the name of the Lord and ask him for specific guidance.
"He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his Name’s sake."
Psalm 23:3
Once he has shown you the way to go, the correct path to walk, then the Lord himself will take over because you are following him rightly.
vs 4:
"I will fear no evil for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
With his rod the shepherd beats off the enemy, and with his staff he pulls you back should you turn to go the wrong way.
When one is in danger, it is critical that he get his direction from the Lord because only the Lord knows all the details of the story. Only the Lord knows what is hidden. Only the Lord has the correct perspective. Therefore the most important thing one can do is turn to HIM for specific guidance, asking to be shown the right way to take, the correct path to walk, and the great shepherd will then lead him to victory no matter how great the enemy is.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and HE SHALL DIRECT YOUR PATHS.
Proverbs 3:5-6
"Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:38 Do you have financial problems? Are you living from check to check? Does God have anything to say about this? Of course he does. The Word of God contains all of God's instructions for life, including the remedy for such things as financial troubles. The Word of God says that if you GIVE, you will receive. Now I know this sounds like the mantra of many television evangelists who are actually con-men out for your donations to make themselves rich. They quote Scriptures like this to get you to give. Those false ministers who make money by misusing Scripture will stand before the Lord someday, and will feel the shame of his rebuke. But just because con-men misuse Scripture, doesn't mean that there's something wrong with the Scripture. If followed with a heart that is right before God, it WILL bring the blessing of God because his Word says it will, therefore it will. If you're hurting, GIVE. But be careful to whom you give. Better to give to a struggling small church in your community than to a tv evangelist who lives in a house worth millions with swimming pools and jet planes. The most important thing you can do is to SEEK GOD about where HE would have you give. I've lived this way for years and could write a book on how the Lord has stunned me with his blessings. There is a verse in the book of Malachi which says something very surprising. In Malachi chapter 3, God says to TRY HIM. This is the ONLY place in the Bible where God tells us to put him to the test. More often the Scriptures tell us NOT to "tempt God," but in this one place God himself tells us to try him and see if he will not respond. "You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, AND TRY ME NOW IN THIS,' says the Lord of hosts, 'if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.'" Malachi 3:9-10 Bring all the tithes... The word tithe means a tenth. In other words, he is telling us to return to him one tenth of our income. You recoil in horror? Some would ask "Isn't it enough that the government takes so much from us in taxes, now God wants some of it too?" The government can't be trusted to do right by you. But God CAN be trusted. I have had to bring this message to folks who were in a period of hardship, and I want you to know that I am human and it has pained me greatly to have to tell them "the way out is to give God his tithe." I ache for their pain, and I hate to feel like I'm adding more stress upon them. But it is the Word of God and it is SURE. And I've never brought this message to a person yet who didn't later testify to me of how God responded. 100% of the time. It's sure, because it's the Word of God. Others might say, "that's from the Old Testament, we aren't to follow the law if we're New Testament believers." And of course that's true, but notice that this passage doesn't come from the law. It's a passage from Malachi, who was a prophet. Don't turn away from it. God says to try him - so try him I did, and the blessings have never stopped coming. What is the point in tithing? It reveals your focus. In the act of tithing, you're choosing to honor God as your source, rather than the pride in relying on your own talents and abilities to achieve success. If you are hurting, take God up on his challenge. But do it with a right heart; in other words, don't use this as a ploy to get God to get you out of your difficulty, but make a quality decision today to begin to LIVE it. Don't just do it once to see if it works, that's an insult to the Lord. Rather, decide to live by the Word of God. If you choose to LIVE BY the Word of God, you will see things you never dreamed of. God is faithful. GOD IS FAITHFUL!
"And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it." John 1:5 Darkness cannot overtake light. In the same sense, ignorance cannot overtake knowledge. Once you know something, you cannot UNknow it. This is the reason the Gospel is preached. It is to inform mankind of the way of salvation. Once they know, they know forever and no demon in hell, no attack, no one and nothing can take that away from them, because now they know. Jesus is the light of the world. Darkness must surrender to him. “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” John 8:12 When one is born again, he is brought out of darkness into light and a whole new world, a whole new life, is opened up to him. He will now understand things that never made sense to him before, because the Spirit of the living God dwells within him. "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” Matthew 4:16 But for this to happen there must be a response. The born-again experience does not just happen. The person must be willing to surrender his/her life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and submit to the light, and not all are willing to do that. They make all sorts of excuses to keep themselves away from it. "He came to his own, and is own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:11-13 This is why "religious" people give the Gospel a bad name. Many choose religion over the born-again experience because the cost in truly following Jesus Christ is far from what they are willing to accept. They want rites, and rituals, and tradition - which are all empty, but make them FEEL good and FEEL "religious." "...having a FORM of godliness but denying the power thereof." 2nd Timothy 3:5 The born-again experience is life changing. When the person surrenders his life to Christ, the Lord takes over and remakes that person. It can be painful because it involves being rid of deception and coming into the truth, and many simply do not want the truth because they innately know it is costly. So they choose the safety of the religion they've grown up with ...and they die in their sins. "And He said to them, 'You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.'”
John 8:23-24 Surrender is a fearful thing, and yes, it IS costly. But if a man is told by a doctor that in order to save his life he must undergo an operation, most would gladly accept the operation knowing that it will preserve their lives. The principle is the same. Mankind needs the operation of the "born-again" experience which will bring him out of darkness into light, and it will change him so drastically that it is aptly called being "born" all over again – not physically, but of the Spirit of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.’"
John 3:6-7
Our lives are very short in the light of eternity. Do not fear that which will perhaps involve pain in order to remake you, but surrender your life to Jesus Christ. You will find after awhile that it's a totally amazing process, and you will delight in the choice you made.
AND - it establishes you as a child of God with an eternal future.
Don't fear it, embrace it. It's the operation you need to preserve your life forever.
See more:
The Born-Again Experience