I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call on Him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me. The pangs of Sheol laid hold on me. I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord. "O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!" Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. When I was brought low, He saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
(Verses 1-7)
But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. James 4
Been singed lately by the coals of Sheol? I have. Satan wants us to feel like we're in hell with him if only for a little while. Embarking on my annual fasting in January was a relief to me. So many open-ended prayer requests. So much busyness between me and my God over the holidays with the baking, visiting, shopping and playing with grandsons--all so incredibly fun--left me hungry to be with Him in quiet and contemplation. I always start the twenty-one day modified fasting with a three day food fast. Monday was the first day. Tuesday afternoon the enemy showed up with a vengeance. Attacked my heart. Threw me into an emotional tizzy. Singed my righteous robes with his lies. He wanted me to experience a little hell on earth--pangs of anguish that permeate his domain. Fortunately, the rancid odor of Sheol drove me more furiously to the throne of God. Unwilling to allow the enemy to lay me low. It took a couple of days for God to sort out the mess in me and for me, but He did. I hope I don't smell like smoke. But I read these verses on Saturday morning when the issues causing my distress were working themselves out with a lot more clarity.
I do love the Lord because He heard me in my distress and anguish of heart. I do love Him because He stands there between me and the enemy, His shadow covering me as He rebukes the slimy creature who would rule my heart if he could. I grab the edge of my Father's robe as the enemy slinks away. That was on Wednesday. My job after that was to keep him away from me. Stronger because of the intervention of my God, it is necessary that I resist the devil. What I always notice when the enemy catches me off-guard is that I think the attack is all my fault. I've made a mess. I've done something heinous, unforgivable. I am a worm. That keeps me from standing up and facing my enemy dressed in my full armor. It also makes life too much about...me. And, it's not what God has taught me. I'm supposed to know I'm at war. All the time. Every day. Fighting in my own personal Fallujah. Sleep with one eye open. Sword of the spirit ever ready. It's way easier to detect the nature of the battle in someone else's life. Harder to detect the odor of the enemy in my own camp.
You keep him/her in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he/she trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock (Isaiah 26). And isn't that the answer? Where we look? When the enemy can get me all tied up in myself, one who is terribly flawed and in need of mercy, I can wallow in all that's wrong for eternity. My simple response should always be to put my mind back on Him. That is what saved me on Thursday evening. God spoke to me through my own mouth. Vanessa was asking me how God was working out the problem and I said, "God began this work I am about. It was all His doing. I am sure He will bring it all to completion and those of us who are involved to great peace." It was more prophetic than an affirmation of something I'd heard all day. Because I hadn't. It was new information. Made me look up. Understand that Satan's schemes were all smoke and mirrors because in that moment I hovered above the circumstances looking down on them as God does. Peace. Because if God isn't in a thing, it should die. And if He is in it, because of His great grace and mercy, He will bring it to pass despite our misgivings and mistakes. When all I want is what He wants, I can rest assured that when I do my part, God will do His. Even when I've accomplished mine imperfectly.
Today I've still got some work to do. Humbled and healing from the bruising of the pangs of Sheol, but fully armed with the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth and the shoes of the gospel of peace, I take up the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit and wield these weapons against the evil one in the power of Christ. He has been stripped of all his authority over me at the cross of Jesus. Satan has no power I don't grant him. He is a toothless roaring lion out to scare us to death. To make us look at ourselves and our circumstances instead of following the General Who leads us from glory to glory. And even when life is at its end for some of us, there is no victory for the lord of Sheol, for we live and will never die. As C.S. Lewis has said, "We are a soul. We have a body." May our souls be at rest, return to the peace that passes all understanding. For when we allow the enemy to steal our peace, he has a chink in our armor that can torment our souls. The Lord, Who always deals bountifully with us, will take our simple trust in Him and pour hot coals upon the one who would singe our lives with the smell of hell. Then our God will cause us to triumph in Christ Jesus!
(Verses 1-7)
But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. James 4
Been singed lately by the coals of Sheol? I have. Satan wants us to feel like we're in hell with him if only for a little while. Embarking on my annual fasting in January was a relief to me. So many open-ended prayer requests. So much busyness between me and my God over the holidays with the baking, visiting, shopping and playing with grandsons--all so incredibly fun--left me hungry to be with Him in quiet and contemplation. I always start the twenty-one day modified fasting with a three day food fast. Monday was the first day. Tuesday afternoon the enemy showed up with a vengeance. Attacked my heart. Threw me into an emotional tizzy. Singed my righteous robes with his lies. He wanted me to experience a little hell on earth--pangs of anguish that permeate his domain. Fortunately, the rancid odor of Sheol drove me more furiously to the throne of God. Unwilling to allow the enemy to lay me low. It took a couple of days for God to sort out the mess in me and for me, but He did. I hope I don't smell like smoke. But I read these verses on Saturday morning when the issues causing my distress were working themselves out with a lot more clarity.
I do love the Lord because He heard me in my distress and anguish of heart. I do love Him because He stands there between me and the enemy, His shadow covering me as He rebukes the slimy creature who would rule my heart if he could. I grab the edge of my Father's robe as the enemy slinks away. That was on Wednesday. My job after that was to keep him away from me. Stronger because of the intervention of my God, it is necessary that I resist the devil. What I always notice when the enemy catches me off-guard is that I think the attack is all my fault. I've made a mess. I've done something heinous, unforgivable. I am a worm. That keeps me from standing up and facing my enemy dressed in my full armor. It also makes life too much about...me. And, it's not what God has taught me. I'm supposed to know I'm at war. All the time. Every day. Fighting in my own personal Fallujah. Sleep with one eye open. Sword of the spirit ever ready. It's way easier to detect the nature of the battle in someone else's life. Harder to detect the odor of the enemy in my own camp.
You keep him/her in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he/she trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock (Isaiah 26). And isn't that the answer? Where we look? When the enemy can get me all tied up in myself, one who is terribly flawed and in need of mercy, I can wallow in all that's wrong for eternity. My simple response should always be to put my mind back on Him. That is what saved me on Thursday evening. God spoke to me through my own mouth. Vanessa was asking me how God was working out the problem and I said, "God began this work I am about. It was all His doing. I am sure He will bring it all to completion and those of us who are involved to great peace." It was more prophetic than an affirmation of something I'd heard all day. Because I hadn't. It was new information. Made me look up. Understand that Satan's schemes were all smoke and mirrors because in that moment I hovered above the circumstances looking down on them as God does. Peace. Because if God isn't in a thing, it should die. And if He is in it, because of His great grace and mercy, He will bring it to pass despite our misgivings and mistakes. When all I want is what He wants, I can rest assured that when I do my part, God will do His. Even when I've accomplished mine imperfectly.
Today I've still got some work to do. Humbled and healing from the bruising of the pangs of Sheol, but fully armed with the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth and the shoes of the gospel of peace, I take up the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit and wield these weapons against the evil one in the power of Christ. He has been stripped of all his authority over me at the cross of Jesus. Satan has no power I don't grant him. He is a toothless roaring lion out to scare us to death. To make us look at ourselves and our circumstances instead of following the General Who leads us from glory to glory. And even when life is at its end for some of us, there is no victory for the lord of Sheol, for we live and will never die. As C.S. Lewis has said, "We are a soul. We have a body." May our souls be at rest, return to the peace that passes all understanding. For when we allow the enemy to steal our peace, he has a chink in our armor that can torment our souls. The Lord, Who always deals bountifully with us, will take our simple trust in Him and pour hot coals upon the one who would singe our lives with the smell of hell. Then our God will cause us to triumph in Christ Jesus!
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