God Grants The Victory For Us In Our Battles

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy Name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits;" Psalm 103:1-2 Among his benefits is the fact that those who are his will live a life totally different from those who are in the world. To those who are in the world: you're on your own. To those who are the Lord's, it will be an adventure. You'll find yourself out on the battlefield, and you'll find that the enemies are "giants." Victory over those giants will be a joy the world just cannot supply. "For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to hold fast to him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves." Deuteronomy 11:22-23 Those "greater and mightier nations" the Jews faced as they came to the promised land -- were giants. And this is what we will face too. Yes we will encounter giants, enemies greater and mightier than we are. Israel was constantly facing giants, and that's a picture of what our walk with the Lord will always be; what we are confronted with will be far greater and mightier than we are. BUT - we are guaranteed the victory over them ... IF ...we carefully keep all that the Lord commands us to do. The steps of the believer are ordained by God, and he will never lead him to a place without providing what is needed to succeed in that place. We are never, EVER, left on our own. But this will be a call to faith because the challenge will always be greater than what we can handle, and we will constantly need to be in the will of God knowing that that is our everlasting protection. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way." Psalm 37:23 Many believers are familiar with this verse, but there is one word mistranslated. "A good man" is the Hebrew "gever," which would be better translated "warrior." We are to know that we are indeed in warfare, but that our steps have been ordered by God himself. Wherever he brings us, he will grant the victory over all opposing forces if we are abiding in him. "No man shall be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as he has said to you." Deuteronomy 11:25 But the victory necessitates that one be in good standing with the Lord, that there remains no rebellion in his life, that he is totally obedient to the Captain of the Hosts. What soldier on the battlefield would dare refuse the command of the General? If that's so obvious in the natural, how much more necessary is it in the spiritual warfare we are in? Obedience is crucial! King David was in such a conflict when he stood against the giant Goliath. Picture that arrogant Goliath taunting the Israelites. Forty days, morning and night, he'd strut before them and taunt them with insults, and they were terrified. Then along came David. He was the "man after God's own heart," and he did not fear the giant. Listen to the confidence in his voice: "For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 1 Samuel 17:26 David went and stood before the giant and said to him: vs 35: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." David took a stone and toppled that giant, and then - and this is so great - he killed the giant with the giant's own sword! Sort of like Haman hanging on the gallows that he built for Mordecai (Esther 7:10). The Israelites feared entering the promised land, the battlefield, because they cried that there were giants in that land. They had complained at every step forward and the Lord was sick of it. For that, the Lord waited until every last one of them died out, and then Joshua led their sons against the giants and took the land. The Lord looks for Davids and Joshuas to carry out his will. Those who live in unbelief won't dare to venture into that minefield. But those who know their Lord will proceed because they know that it is the Lord who sent them, therefore the Lord will obtain the victory. Do not hang back because of fear, otherwise you'll never know the savor of the victory and the awe in which you will stand before God with a heart filled with praise.

It's Not Rejection - It's A Call Upwards

"The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise." Proverbs 15:31 A rebuke, whether it comes from the Lord or from a person, hurts. A person's reaction will always be anger, a refusal to receive it, and a self-justification bringing to mind all the reasons it's not true. That's human nature. We go off by ourselves to lick our wounds, and form all kinds of accusations in our hearts toward the one who wounded us. But the wise will sit down and go over what was said seeking to know if there's any truth in it. He must take the person who spoke it out of the picture, and concentrate solely on what was said. Many times, careful examination will shed light on a fault or a sin that the Lord wants to address. Having been there, (many times), I've learned that the rebuke of the Lord is given for a purpose and that purpose is for our good. It is NOT a rejection, it's a call upward. It is very humbling to sit before the Lord having to acknowledge something he reveals that hurts our pride, and it's terribly hard to admit to what is said. But I ask, would you want it any other way? Would you want to continue in the sin or the trait the Lord is pointing to? Perhaps, if you're new in the Lord, yes. But if you've walked with him awhile and have experienced his rebukes, and if you've cooperated with him and dealt with it, then you know the incomparable relief that lifts from you when you break through. The peace. The joy. And you'll find his arms open to you when you run to him for a hug. He'll give you that hug, because he's even more joyful than you are over the fact that you humbled yourself and received the rebuke and dealt with it. vs 32: "He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding." The greatest obstacle to breaking through to freedom is our pride. We are constantly seeking affirmation and resisting correction. We want to think we're great, but the Word of God tells us we're not. We push forward seeking self-esteem, but in doing so we're denying the truth about ourselves. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" Jeremiah 17:9 This has to be the starting place, coming to accept the truth about ourselves, that we are not great, but that in fact we dwell in a fallen human nature that the Lord calls "deceitful" and "wicked." To pat oneself on the back is deceit. We're lying to ourselves. We're trying to tell ourselves something that is simply not true. The truth is that we're faulty, we're defective, and our fallen human nature is “desperately wicked.” There's not one of us whose fallen human nature is "good." Not one. “There is none righteous, no, not one;" Romans 3:10 When we come to the Lord, we have to start here, acknowledging the truth. And once one has done this a few times, he comes to the realization that this is the way OUT of our condition and into praise. From the day one is born again, a process begins inside - changing us, recreating us, restoring us, establishing us in all righteousness. It's a long process and can take a lifetime, but we won't even begin until we can go back to the beginning and grapple with the truth about ourselves. "The way of life winds upward for the wise, that he may turn away from hell below." Proverbs 15:24 The transformation is the work of the Lord as he works out his plan in us. But it has to start with humility, and the person who starts here will be on his way to knowing the wisdom of God. Humility has to come first, but it leads to honor and to the joy of the Lord, a joy some have never yet known because they can't let go of their pride, they refuse to admit the truth, they refuse to surrender. But once they "get it" and turn their lives over to their Creator, the sky's the limit. vs 33: "The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility." "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and HE will lift you up." James 4:10

Worry Is A Roaring Lion

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" Matthew 6:25-26 Because we live in a fallen world and have seen the miseries common to man, therefore we worry. But worry by nature takes God out of the picture. Worry assures us that this or that might happen to us, so we worry. First of all, worry does absolutely no good and second, it is sin because God has told us NOT to worry. vs 31-32 "Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek." There is a difference, a great difference, between the believer and the people of the world. We're talking about two entirely different kingdoms. In the world, you'd better worry because this or that or the other might happen, and if it does, you're on your own. But for those who have been brought into the Kingdom of God, it's an entirely different matter. Here, you are NOT on your own. Nothing comes into or goes out of your life except what is allowed by your Father in heaven. If he allows trial in your life, then he has a purpose for it, and it will be the greatest setting for him to reveal more of himself to you, a setting in which needed growth will take place in you, and a setting that will build your faith as you experience his presence in your life and are taught about the failure that worry is, and as your confidence in HIM becomes established in you. vs 32: "For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things." You are never alone. In every place and in every story your God is present. Whether you "feel" him or not he is there. He knows your needs better than you even know them yourself. If you journal and commit to memory all the stories wherein God made himself obvious in your life, you'll begin to realize all he has had to prepare in advance in order to see you through, and that alone will open your eyes to his trustworthiness. Consider those stories, how he worked them out with his fingerprints all over them. Furthermore, he has promised that if you seek FIRST his Kingdom and his righteousness, if you seek HIS plan for your life, then your sustenance is guaranteed. vs 33: "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Pray with me: Father, I confess the sin of worry. I realize it is an insult to you, the suggestion to my mind that I will be left alone to fend for myself because you will not be sufficient to bring me through. I know that worry is part of our fallen human nature; it's a big one, Lord. I ask you Father, to become so real to me that worry will vanish. It's not that you will spare us from all harm, but it is that you will actively walk us through whatever happens in our lives. Convince me Father, that I can safely trust you no matter what. In my heart of hearts I know that, but "Satan comes as a roaring lion" and his roar can terrify me. I don't have it within myself to stand strong and not fear, so I'm asking for your grace, your enablement to put all my trust and all my confidence in you knowing that you will never leave me nor forsake me. Father, grow me up in the faith, for your Word says that without faith one cannot please God. It's that faith you're after, and I surrender myself and my situation to you asking that you make that faith a rock in me, a foundation that can never be moved.