The Battle Continues . . .

Sometimes we are blessed, and yet we remain convinced that we are of all men most miserable. It's not an accident that this happens. It seems with great consistency, whenever we do our best for God, we are attacked. The Devil's favorite technique is to convince us that we are completely ineffective and alone in our efforts. I am amazed that we still are such easy prey for this, myself not only included, but at the head of the line. I mean after a spiritual high, you walk the battlegrounds waiting for an all out attack, and you hear nothing but crickets. Unusual silence. Making the fight seem irrelevant, and the efforts seem in vain. It is at this point when it seems it should be the easiest to go on, we find going on close to impossible. We desire some measure of result, and when we can't clearly see whether we are doing any good we find our situation sometimes hopeless.

So, before we all crawl into a hole, what do we do about it? Remember that we are in a fight, and discouragement is one of the things that we have to fight. Look, if you throw up your hands in disgust and walk away, you are vulnerable to every kind of evil temptation; and if you have checked out spiritually, in a very short time you can ruin your testimony. We fight against the powers of the darkness of this world, of course they want you to think that you are ineffective and doing no good. It is not a trot through a field of daisies, it is a fight! Get up and fight! Do you know that God is greater than any enemy we face? Do you know that God is our ever present help in time of trouble? Do you know that He will never leave us or forsake us? So, even if you are by yourself, you are not alone: the Maker of Heaven and Earth is with you and for you.

If you are waiting for the things to get easier, let me save you some trouble: things are hard now, and they are going to get harder. Discouragement is going to come, and it ought not to sideline us, but to cause us to cry out to God in our distress. God will always help us, comfort us and fight for us. The days that it is the hardest to get up and keep going are the days that it is most important to get up and keep going. Always pressing on for Jesus' sake; knowing that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.

The day isn't over yet . . .

Paul told Timothy at the end of his days, that he had fought the good fight. Isn't that strange? A people who love God and love others, who serve God by serving others and constrain no one to believe what they teach; and here is a champion of the faith calling it a fight. We fight to be sheep and doves. We literally fight the evil one to be both harmless and helpful. We should, and we have been conditioned not to, expect resistance. As a matter of fact, if you try to tell someone about Jesus; you can most definitely plan on being resisted. Now let me name names: when I say resistance, I am saying demonic and satanic opposition. You see, we have been desensitized to real Christianity by euphemistic writers, radio hosts and sadly many preachers. The great trick of Satan is to get us to turn the message from what we need to hear to what we want to hear. So here is what you need to hear: Satan and demons always oppose us. (Ephesians 6:12)

The devil always wants to replace an alarm bell with a soft chime. It is not the purring of a kitten that you hear, it is the roaring of a lion, who is eyeing you for dinner. Christians are being sent out to battle day by day in short pants and sandals, and they are either getting their clocks cleaned, or they are not being bothered because they are of little affect for the cause of Christ. So, we realize that we are in a fight; now we realize that we need to get ready for it. We have to put our armor on. When we get up, we put our armor on, because we are going to battle. Soldiers don't just fire a single volley, and then the other side says that's it, we've had enough. They know that they will be coming back again and again. The day isn't over after the first volley, even if it up ends you. Remember, greater is the One Who is on the inside, than the one who is on the outside. Battles are not fought in days and weeks, they are fought in seconds and in minutes. So when we've been knocked back, we need to dig in and pray, "God help me to not lose the battle; God help me not to lose the day to the evil one." Listen, the battle isn't over until somebody quits fighting, and God helping us we will keep fighting on, and God helping us we will have many victories on our way to our ultimate victory. God bless you all.

Praise in prayer

I was reading some of Spurgeon's writings the other day, and I found something on prayer. He said we seem to prevail with God, when there is an element of praise to our prayers. I hope that we all pray frequently, but I hope that it is not perfunctory prayer. I have caught myself on many occasions praying aloud and offering the same words in the same order. What a strange thing, I mean I don't talk to anyone and make a habit of repeating myself; so, why would I repeat myself so frequently when talking to God. I don't think that God or I get much out of my prayer when it is offered as a verbatim copy of the last time I prayed. I think ultimately, it is that I am not really talking to God. I think sometimes we all lose sight of the privilege of prayer.

Think about it, what subject ever had an audience with a king, whenever he decided to speak to the king? And here we have the literal King of kings, and we can talk to him with whatever concerns us, whenever it concerns us. Go to your favorite spot, the one where it is quiet and beautiful, and you can look and admire the handiwork of God; and then say to yourself the One who made all of this is willing to listen to me. Even more amazing, He is not only willing to listen, but He wants to listen. What father isn't moved when his child tells him all that is in his or her tiny heart. Do we really not know that the King Eternal is that loving Father Who cares so deeply for His children? And in light of that are our hearts not filled with praise? Loved ones, what a beautiful God we serve; call out to him with a heart filled with praise, and He will answer.