“…Be not afraid, neither dismayed: for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
Dear Ones:
Life is filled with distractions, and some of them can be very serious ones. In speaking of the Lord’s second coming, and the “end of the world,” the Lord Jesus said: “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars: SEE THAT YOU ARE NOT TROUBLED: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” (Matt. 24:6) Why would the Lord speak of “wars and rumors of wars” if in hearing of them, there might be a problem in our devotion to Him? It is first to bring us to a realization of “things as they are.” Ever since Cain killed his brother Able, there have been wars…and they continue to this very day, and will continue until the Lord Jesus comes to set up His kingdom on this earth. So what is His teaching about this “context?” Peter tells us that we are not to be surprised by difficulties, opposition, even suffering, as though these things are foreign to us as Christians. (1 Peter 4:12) He would even go so far as to say that we become partakers of Christ’s sufferings. (v.13) The issue is, that we are NOT to be surprised by these things, nor the rumors of these things throughout the world. Fear and discouragement do not belong to the Christian, or disciple of Christ. The distractions of this world, however great and “overwhelming,” are not to take precedence over our vision of Christ, and our appropriation of Him, as our very “present help in trouble.”
How is this to be done from a practical standpoint? When David wrote Psalm 16, he gave us a key…a key of appropriation, or the essential act and attitude of partaking of Christ as our life. He wrote: “I have SET the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” (v.8) What is David accomplishing here? In choosing to deliberately set the Lord before him, he makes a choice. That choice is to see the Lord above all else, the most dominant and effect force and power of his life. From Christ’s presence, he will derive strength and courage, the stability that he needs in a changing, ever shifting world. He chooses not to be dominated by circumstances, but by His King, Lord, and God…who is forever present. What is the key to doing this, of seeing the Lord Jesus as Sovereign, our Sovereign in every circumstance?
When Daniel was an older man, living among the exiles in Babylon, he had the practice of worshipping the Lord three times a day. It was at this point that the enemy would seek to strike a blow, even to the destruction of Daniel. Why would Daniel risk his life to continue to worship? It is because, in that very pagan environment of idolatrous worship and corresponding wickedness, worship was the key to keeping the Lord ever before him, remembering who and what He was. In addition, and most importantly, it was in the act and attitude of worship, that God would reveal Himself to the heart and mind of Daniel. God would be a greater reality to him in that environment than all that he would see around him.
Dear Father, save us from lesser things than Yourself. Let not the great upheavals of injustice and suffering, wars and rumors of wars, deter or distract us from coming aside regularly to worship you in Spirit and truth. Reveal Yourself to our hearts in such measure as to become the greatest reality of our lives. Then will we declare with David: “…because He is at my right hand, I shall NOT be moved.” We thank and praise Thee, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad