When the Lion ROARS

“Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour,” 1 Peter 5:8

When I was younger my family went to a “wild” animal park in Florida, the kind where you drive through while the animals roam around.  All the animals ignored us for the most part; they were used to the steady parade of cars.  We drove through the lion’s section, most of whom slept in the sun or lazily watched us passing by.  But there was one male lion who didn’t take to kindly to our presence, and as we slowed to get a closer look at him he shook his head, sending his mane spiraling outward and let out a thundering ROAR!  We all jumped, my little brother started crying and my dad stepped on the gas.  I’ll never forget how my heart pounded in my chest.

Peter says we have an enemy who is like that roaring lion.  He is fierce and ferocious and always on the hunt for easy prey.  He is ruthless and malicious and will attack without provocation.  He hates humankind because he hates God and everything God loves.  And he has a particularly fierce hatred for Christians.   He stalks believers, pacing back and forth with his menacing demeanor.  And he roars.  He roars out accusations and threats.  He roars out a list of your failures and sins.  He roars about what a bad mom you are, that you’re a lousy wife and a hopeless, useless mess.  He roars out that God could never love you.  He roars out lies.

How should we deal with this roaring lion?  In his very next verse Peter tells us exactly what to do. “Resist him, standing firm in the faith,” (2 Peter 5:9) James agrees, saying, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you,” (James 4:7.  Paul tells us to “Stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:11).   Proverbs 28:1 says “The righteous are as bold as a lion,” Friend, when the lion roars, you stand in the righteousness of Christ and roar back the Name of Jesus and the Word of God.  You remind the devil that he is a defeated, powerless fool and that his destruction is assured.  You declare that “The Lion of Judah” (Rev. 5:5) has already claimed the victory.  The devil roars, but that’s all he can do to those who belong to Christ.  Don’t tremble.  Don’t run.  Don’t back down. “A lion . . . retreats before nothing,” Proverbs 30:30.  You are a righteous lion. ROAR!

Holy Father, give me the heart of a righteous lion to stand firm before the devil.  Help me remember that all he can do to me is roar, because I am sealed by the Holy Spirit in the blood of the Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ.   Amen.

 

Search Me O God

“The lamp (light showing the way of truth) of the Lord searches (examines, tracks down) the spirit (breath, life) of a man; it searches out his inmost being (heart, chamber, bedroom, the most intimate part of the heart),” Proverbs 20:27.

When we are searching for something important, we turn on every available light and look throughout the room.  We move things that might be covering up what we’re seeking.  We check every corner, hunt through drawers, closets and shelves and we keep looking until we find our target. Sometimes we even go back where we’ve already looked, just in case we missed it the first time.

God has a holy light, a brilliant, powerful light that illumines every corner and crevice of our lives.  He shines that spotlight on us, searching our hearts and minds, out thoughts and intentions, our desires and passions and our actions.  He moves everything we use to cover over our hearts. He looks far deeper than we even know exists, to the most intimate levels of our being, to the place where we find the truth about ourselves.  His purpose is to locate and root out everything in us that does not meet the perfect standard of His children. 

 I need this holy light of truth to examine my life, to track down everything in me that is not conforming to the image of Christ.  I need God to search out every offensive way in me (Psalm 139:24).  In the deepest part of my heart, there are passions and desires that need to be crucified to Christ Jesus (Galatians 5:24) if I am to truly love Him and be a vessel for His glory. 

Lord, I want to be fully open to the Spirit’s examination, I want You to roam throughout my heart, mind and body and expose me to the core. 

The Sword of the Spirit

“Take up  the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God,” (Ephesians 6:17).

Did you notice that Paul called the Word of God the “sword of the Spirit”? There’s a very good reason for that – it is the only offensive weapon in our Christian arsenal.   And it is enough because Satan runs from the holy power of God’s Word.  Hebrews 4:12 says “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double edged sword.” Revelation 1:12-16 describes the God-Man, Jesus Christ as He appears in John’s vision; verse 16 tells us “out of His mouth came a sharp double-edged sword.” Even in the heavens, Jesus still uses the Sword of the Spirit to deliver justice.

So where do we get this sword, and how do we learn how to use it? Psalm 119:11 gives us the answer – “I have hidden your Word in my heart,”   Simply put, we memorize Scripture. Every verse, every passage, every promise and every truth adds to the weight and length and strength of your Sword. And the more you study the Word and meditate on it, the more adept you will be at using it. Is there a particular area of weakness or stronghold where Satan usually attacks? Look for Scripture that addresses that area. Read the verses aloud, write them on notecards and place them in areas like the kitchen, your desk, your bathroom mirror or bedside table. Get a journal and write the verses out, look up the words, consider how this verse applies to your life – these are all excellent “drills” to help you grow in knowledge and strength in the Word of the Lord.

Consider this, when Satan launches an attack against you, and all you know is John 3:16, (which is an awesome verse to know), you are trying to defeat the enemy with a pocketknife. But if you have been reading, studying, meditating and memorizing Scripture, when you reach into your heart where that Word has been stored and grab hold of those verses, you are going to pull out a SWORD that will send your enemy reeling and scrambling to get away. That’s how the child of God does battle with the enemy of our soul!

Your Promised Land

“See the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord the God of your fathers told you, do not be afraid; do not be discouraged,” (Deuteronomy 1:21).

 When the Israelites first stood at the threshold of the Promised Land, they went out to explore the territory and were astonished at the good land that awaited them.  It was everything God has told them – rich and fertile, good for supporting livestock, with settled towns and homes waiting for the wandering people of Yahweh.  But – and sn’t there always a “but” – there were also giants inhabiting the towns.  Despite the assurances of Moses, Joshua and Caleb that the Lord would fight on their behalf, the Israelites balked at pressing on.  They let fear take away the blessings God had promised and caused the whole community to wander in the wilderness for forty years.

What I see so profoundly in this verse is that, even before they set foot in the land, it was already theirs.  God had already declared it for them, all they had to do was move ahead into what was theirs by divine decree.  Yes there were giants in their way, but if God had already declared it to be so, would He not also move every obstacle in their path?  Of course He would.  But they would not trust Him and so they let the Promised Land slip through their unbelieving fingers.

Some fifteen years ago, God promised to use me as His spokesman, to share His Word and His Truth.  There were some mighty big challenges before me, and I took more steps back than forward, but He has been faithful to bring me to what He declared over me.  This post and my blog (https://dbethandrews.wordpress.com) are part of that, and I hope there is even more ahead. I don’t know what God has set before you as your “Promised Land.”  I don’t know what giants are in your path.  But I know that if the Sovereign King of the universe has spoken a promise over you, you need to step into that promise and watch Him move the giants and make it happen.  What God declares is as good as done.  Beloved, it’s time to march on.

Blooms in the Desert

“O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).

“Lord, I just feel so dry, like the cracked ground of a desert,” I wrote in my prayer journal.  It was the best description of my life. As David has written centuries earlier, my soul felt dry and my body was weary.  It had been like this for many months.  Oh I was in church regularly, I was active in ministry and I shared the Word in classes, in my writings and in conversations.  But in my heart I knew something was missing.  My spirit longed for Living Water.  In my parched state, I pleaded with God to send relief.

As He so often does, the Holy Spirit sent me on a “Biblical scavenger-hunt” to see what the Word has to say.  He took me to Exodus 14 the account of the Israelites’ escape from Egypt where Moses, through the power of the Lord, caused the sea to part and the people crossed over “on dry ground.”  He took me to Joshua 3 where again the Israelites crossed the Jordan (at flood stage, mind you) by way of a divinely dried up riverbed. They didn’t slug through mud and muck, but walked on firm, dry land.  Then He took me to Ezekiel 37, where the prophet spoke the Word of the Lord and dry bones came to life again, with tendons and flesh and the breath of Life.  Finally, He took me to Isaiah 53 and reminded me that Jesus was called “a tender shoot, like a root out of dry ground,” (v. 2).

In all of these He reminded me that dry seasons can be the gateway to the Promised Land.  They can precede a time of awakening and renewal, and they can actually become a place of growth.  I learned through these examples that surviving dry seasons requires perseverance, listening to the Word of the God, and being humble and submissive before the Him.  These are lifelines during this times when our hearts and our spirits are like a cracked desert.

Beloved, if you are in Christ, God will use even the dry seasons of your life to fulfill His plan and purpose.  You need not be afraid, but press in and press on.  There is Living Water in His Word and in His Spirit.  He will send the refreshing you need.  Then “The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.  It will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy” (Isaiah 35:1). Even dry ground cannot stop the blossoms of joy!

The Bigger Picture

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

“I need a bigger map than this,” I complained. “I need to see my whole route.”  The image on my GPS only showed the next several hundred yards in front of me.  But that wasn’t enough for me.   I needed to see my present location in relation to where I wanted to end up.  I needed a bigger picture. 

Of all the lessons the Lord has taught me in the past 45 years, I think the most powerful teaching has been that of gaining a bigger picture.  We live in the moment, in the hours of our days, looking at our weekly schedules and our monthly calendars, planning big events a year or more ahead.  We plan for college educations and retirement and think we’re wise in our future forecasts.  But life isn’t just about our plans for the here and now.  Life – real life – is eternal, and the greatest lesson I’ve learned is to have an eternal perspective in all things.

I’m learning to evaluate every situation and circumstance and consider what kind of impact it will have in eternity.  Is this struggle I am in going to change my eternal destiny?  Will this difficult season continue on eternally?  Yes, this life hands us some very hard and painful things, but this life is also temporary, and eternity is—well—eternal, it’s forever and ever and ever.  Just prior to our key verse, Paul wrote: “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (v. 17).  Though they often do not feel “light and momentary,” in the reality of eternity, they are just one tick on the clock of forever. 

I’m also learning to let the words I say pass through this eternal filter.  Several years ago, God gave me a verse to motivate me towards my calling: “If you utter worthy, not worthless words, you will be my spokesman,” (Jeremiah 15:19).  I’m making an intentional effort to speak and write “worthy words” that have an eternal purpose.   I ask myself, “Will the words I’m about to say have an eternal impact?”

This eternal perspective affects my desires too.  When I start to feel the pinch of envy, I remember that Jesus is preparing an eternal place for me that my brother’s beautiful, custom-built home can never match.  I will wear a robe of righteousness forever that no fashion designer could ever create.  I will have a perfect body that doesn’t require hours in a gym.  Even the events of this world don’t seem so overwhelming when viewed in the light of eternity.

Thinking back to my GPS, when we have a “bigger picture” of life that culminates in eternity, we understand the journey we are on and the route before us.  We can traverse twisting roads, sharp turns, long stretches and detours with the assurance that none of these will stop us from reaching our final destination – heaven and the presence of God forever.  Beloved, I encourage you to widen the view before you and trust the One who is leading you.  This life with all its heartache and struggle is part of the journey to your perfect eternal destiny.  Let’s travel on together with our hearts set on forever.

What Will You do With Your New Year?

“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

What will you do with the new year you’ve been given?  What goals and aspirations so you have for the next 12 months?  Start a new job?  Go to college?  Graduate? Buy a house or a car? Get married? Take on an exciting challenge?  I’ve got a couple of my own in that list.  It’s good to have goals, I think we wander through life without them.  It’s important to look ahead and consider possibilities and options and to sketch out some plans for the future.  That doesn’t mean we’re not walking by faith, God gives us wisdom and vision to guide us through our lives.

But don’t let the “big picture” crowd out the details.  As you approach this new year, don’t forget that you’ve been given 365 individual days which are broken into 8,760 hours. Consider that about 2,920 will be given to sleep, and about the same number at work. That leaves another 2,920 hours of “disposable time,” which you can use any way you choose.  That is generally spread out over several work days and days off.    Certainly there are chores and other responsibilities to be done, yet we still have a good portion of that time left over. 

This is where Moses’ prayer in our key verse comes in.  We can use our time to sit numbly in front of a screen, or to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol.  We can fill our minds with trivial accounts of the rich and famous.  We can fritter away those hours with mindless distractions or create things that won’t last.  Or we can spend our time wisely.  We can draw closer to our Heavenly Father through prayer and studying His Word.  We can grow in the fellowship of other believers.  We can give our time to Kingdom work.  We can invest well in others; serving, mentoring, teaching, caring, loving.  We can use our words to bless and encourage and build up. We can share what the world so desperately needs: love, hope, and peace. 

It’s really up to you.  God has granted you a fresh, new year and the possibilities are endless. How will you invest the treasure of time you’ve been given?  With frivolity or with wisdom? With mindlessness or with purpose? Beloved, how will you number your days this year?