We Have An Enemy

I Peter 5:8-9a,  "Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith..."

    Ever had one of those days when everything seems to go wrong?  Maybe most of your days are like that.  This happens partially because we live in a fallen world and partially because we are human, with the failings common to all people.  But it also happens partially because we have an enemy who is working night and day to frustrate us, discourage us, frighten us, and try to cause us to take our eyes off Jesus and concentrate on our problems and limitations.  Don't let him succeed!  Never ever forget: I John 4:4b,  "The one who is in you [God's Holy Spirit] is greater than the one who is in the world [our enemy, the devil]."   James 4:7 tells us just how to have victory.  This verse says,  "Submit yourselves, then to God.  [Bring God and all His power into the situation.]  Resist the devil [with God's power] and he will flee from you."

    Remember that God is sovereign over all the circumstances and details of our lives.  He is on His throne!!!  He is in charge!!!  Every event or situation that comes into our lives is first of all strained through the permissive will of a Heavenly Father who loves us and desires what is best for us, and He has promised to cause everything that happens to us to turn out for our good and His glory.

Father, thank You that You never lose us or forget us or neglect us in any way.  Thank You that You are in charge over every detail of our lives, even when it doesn't feel that way to us.  Thank You for the promise of Romans 8:28, that You will cause all things to work together for our good.  May we always trust Your power and Your love.  Amen.

Praise the Lord!

      I just want to borrow some words from Scripture and use them for us to praise the Lord together today.

      Psalm 9:1-2,  "I will thank you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.  I will be filled with joy because of you.  I will sing praises to your name, O Most High."

      I Chronicles 16:23-25a, 34,  "Let the whole earth sing to the Lord!  Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.  Publish his glorious deeds among the nations.  Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.  Great is the Lord!  He is most worthy of praise!......Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!  His faithful love endures forever."

      Psalm 11:7,  "For the Lord is righteous, and he loves justice. 

Those who do what is right will see his face."

      Psalm 13:6,  "I will sing to the Lord, because he has been so good to me."

      Psalm 18:1-2,  "I love you, Lord, you are my strength.  The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock in whom I find protection.  He is my shield, the strength of my salvation, and my stronghold."

      Romans 11:33a,  "Oh, what a wonderful God we have!  How great are his riches and wisdom and knowledge."

     Psalm 29:2b,  "Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness."

      Psalm 16:8, 11,  "I know the Lord is always with me.  I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.  You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever."

      Psalm 31:21,  "Praise the Lord, for he has shown me his unfailing love."

Father, I praise You and thank You for all Your goodness and loving kindness to me.  Amen.

Idols

Deuteronomy 5:7,  "You shall have no other gods before me."

  When most of us think of sin, I believe we think of lying, cheating, stealing, inhumane treatment of others, murder, and all sorts of gross sexual sins.  God hates sin of all kinds, but, as we read the Old Testament, we find over and over one kind of sin which angers Him more than all the others, and it is not one of the above.

   Listen to how angry God is with His chosen people in II Kings 21:12-15,  "Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.  I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab.  I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.  I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies.  They will be looted and plundered by all their foes, because they have done evil in my eyes and have provoked me to anger from the day their forefathers came out of Egypt until this day."

   What sin has so greatly provoked God?  The sin of idolatry.  II Kings 17:15-16, "They rejected his [God's] decrees and the covenant he had made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them.  They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless.  They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, 'Do not do as they do,' and they did the things the Lord had forbidden them to do.  They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole.  They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal."

   The first commandment is this:  "You shall have no others gods before me."  When Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment, He replied,  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."  God wants to have first place in each of our lives.

   We may think that, as long as we don't make little statues to worship, we are not guilty of idolatry.  But anything that is more important to us than God is an idol.  People worship money, power, fame, beauty, athletic prowess, material possessions, even other people--perhaps a parent or a spouse or a child.

   We would do well to ask ourselves periodically,  "If God told us He was going to take away everything in our lives but one thing, and He would allow us to choose the one thing we would keep, what would that one thing be?  If that one thing is anything other than our relationship with God, that thing has become an idol for us.

Pray with me these words of William Cowper's,  "The dearest idol I have known, whate'er that idol be, help me to tear it from thy throne, and worship only thee."   Amen.