Posted on 06/22/2005 7:39:43 PM PDT by kayak
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
Though our world is often in turmoil and we fret about the troubles of the day, we have Your blessed assurance that You are with us. You are, indeed, our Protector, our Consolation, and our Hope. As the well-known song of our childhood tells us, we are weak but You are strong. We are constantly aware that we fall short of Your expectations, O Lord, and we thank You for Your forgiveness and forbearance. Teach us, Lord. Chastise us and mold us into the persons You would have us be. Take our lives, flawed though they be, and use them for Your purposes and to Your glory.
Father, our President is beseiged by an enemy who is relentlessly aiming fiery darts his way. Let his faith grow ever stronger that it may shield him from such attack. We are grateful that he wears the helmet of Your salvation and arms himself with the sword of Your Word. Help him to stay girded with Your Truth, O Lord, and remain steadfast in the face of those obstacles others put in his way. Hold him and his family in the palm of Your hand, keeping them close to You in mind and body and spirit.
Lord, we stand amazed at the courage of our military and are saddened that some in our country wish to diminish them and their mission. Watch over them, Father, and guard their morale as You protect and defend them from harm. Be a Balm to the wounds of those who are wounded in body or spirit. Wrap Your loving arms around the families of our troops and encourage them.
Lord, it seems more than ever that we are indeed wrestling not "against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." We have never seen the likes of the political bitterness and division that is taking place in our nation today. We know that such enmity and hatred is not of You and Your Holy Spirit. Lord, bind the hands of satan as he strives to destroy all that is precious and good in our country. Thwart his efforts to turn our people against You and to diminish the love of Your commandments in our hearts. Renew in our land a desire to seek after You and to desire the fruits of the Spirit. We ask these things in the Name of Your beloved Son and our Savior, Jesus, the Christ. Amen.
Let us pray without ceasing for our President, our military, and our nation.
I am praying in agreement with you tonight, kayak. Your prayer accurately expresses the thoughts of my heart. Thank you so much.
AMEN KAYAK!
GRACE TO ALL BRETHREN!
Ordeals Make Some Things Obvious
Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know
that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son,
your only son, from Me.
Genesis 22:12
From time to time we are tested in ways that make it clear what kind of persons we are. When, for example, Abraham's faith was tested by the command to offer his son Isaac, God could say, "Now I know that you fear God." This is not an easy statement to fathom. But whatever may have been manifested to God by Abraham's ordeal, we can be sure of this: Abraham learned a good deal about himself. After his agony, Abraham would have known his own faith in ways that were impossible before.
When we face difficulty, we find out what we are really made of. In times of ease, we think we know ourselves and we say what we believe in words that sound right to our own ears. And we're not being deliberately deceptive. But A. W. Tozer probably had it right when he said, "Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God."
There are two things about us that need to be tested. One is the validity of our principles. It is something to have meditated on our principles; it is something else to have field-tested them. We need the value of a faith that has found its beliefs to be consistent with reality, on the battlefield as well as in the church pew. And God invites us to test His truths in this very way. "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8). But also, our allegiance to our principles needs to be tested. And frankly, this often requires a trial by fire. "Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not" (Henry Fielding).
If it is through suffering that we learn our own mettle, then suffering is not altogether undesirable. James said, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials" (James 1:2). Perhaps most of us will find that we can't actually welcome difficulty, but we can at least give thanks for its usefulness. There are some very practical, as well as eternal, reasons why we need to understand ourselves, and if it takes hardship to help us understand, then so be it. Even if an ordeal shows that we're less than we've made ourselves out to be in the past, the sooner we face the truth, the better we can make godly choices for the future.
Adversity introduces a man to himself
"That those things which cannot be shaken may remain."
- Hebrews 12:27
We have many things in our possession at the present moment which can be
shaken, and it ill becomes a Christian man to set much store by them, for
there is nothing stable beneath these rolling skies; change is written
upon all things. Yet, we have certain "things which cannot be shaken," and
I invite you this evening to think of them, that if the things which can
be shaken should all be taken away, you may derive real comfort from the
things that cannot be shaken, which will remain. Whatever your losses have
been, or may be, you enjoy present salvation. You are standing at the foot
of his cross, trusting alone in the merit of Jesus' precious blood, and no
rise or fall of the markets can interfere with your salvation in him; no
breaking of banks, no failures and bankruptcies can touch that. Then you
are a child of God this evening. God is your Father. No change of
circumstances can ever rob you of that. Although by losses brought to
poverty, and stripped bare, you can say, "He is my Father still. In my
Father's house are many mansions; therefore will I not be troubled." You
have another permanent blessing, namely, the love of Jesus Christ. He who
is God and Man loves you with all the strength of his affectionate
nature-nothing can affect that. The fig tree may not blossom, and the
flocks may cease from the field, it matters not to the man who can sing,
"My Beloved is mine, and I am his." Our best portion and richest heritage
we cannot lose.
Whatever troubles come, let us play the man; let us show that we are not
such little children as to be cast down by what may happen in this poor
fleeting state of time.
Our country is Immanuel's land, our hope is above the sky, and therefore,
calm as the summer's ocean; we will see the wreck of everything earthborn,
and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation.
C.H.SPURGEON!
GODBLESS THIS LAND,OUR PRESIDENT AND TROOPS!
5 SOLAS!
p.s. i love GODS WORD,however paul is one of my favorites!
Jeremias 20:10-11 (Douay-Rheims version)
10 For I heard the reproaches of many, and terror on every side: Persecute him, and let us persecute him: from all the men that were my familiars, and continued at my side: if by any means he may be deceived, and we may prevail against him, and be revenged on him.
11 But the Lord is with me as a strong warrior: therefore they that persecute me shall fall, and shall be weak: they shall be greatly confounded, because they have not understood the everlasting reproach, which never shall be effaced.
This is just what I needed to read tonight for my nephew is serving in Ramadi, and those who would put petty politics above his well being has worn on me this past week. Thank you for reminding me that we all wrestle against the powers of darkness and, as a community of like-minded souls, we can all strive together for a more perfect reconciliation with our Creator.
Finding that picture made my choice of scripture verses for today's thread quite obvious ... :-)
Excellent thoughts on adversity ... and much-needed in these troubling times.
Thank you for those verses of scripture and for joining us in prayer.
Our prayers are with your nephew and all those who serve our nation in the military. May God keep them safe and lift up their spirits as they strive against the enemies of Light and Liberty, both at home and abroad.
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