Will you be one who endures?

Chapter Fifty-nine:

With today's modern technology, it is very easy to keep up not only with what is happening in the local news, but we can get instantaneous news updates from every part of the world,  even as the events are actually unfolding.   This availability of technology can be overwhelming at times.  There are probably times in your life, if you have access to such technology and availability of information, that you feel like you need to just shut if off for a while because it can become so overwhelming.

Unfortunately, many believers are doing  that on a spiritual level. Even though we realize the  Church continues to become more like the world and less like how God desires the Body of Christ to be, we find that it is easier and less stressful to simply ignore what is going on around us.  We hope that if we can ignore it, it will make our lives less complicated and more manageable as the world is becoming a harder place in which to live. We can find many things to blame for what is happening, whether it be politics, the lowered standard of morals we see around us or how society has become more materialistic and less interested in the things of God.  So, why is it becoming harder to live this life of ours to the point that we feel the need to tune out?

The cause, the reason behind what we are seeing and experiencing in the world today is simply this...the attack by the enemy of God, Satan, is ongoing and is getting much stronger.  The spiritual forces that are against God are setting their aim against not only anyone who may be considering becoming a believer,  but particularly against every true believer and every Bible believing Church and some of us do not want to acknowledge that fact.  And if we do not want to acknowledge it, why on earth would we want to live our lives as though we were in some type of war, which is exactly the situation. We have allowed the desires and cares of this world and the stress of everyday life to keep our focus off of spiritual matters, and most importantly, spiritual readiness.

Please remember that just because we do not actively go out of our way to bother the enemy does not mean that he will stop carrying out his plans to try to destroy us.  He will not stop harassing us just because we do not want to get involved.  While we may think that if we can manage to stay out of things that we will remain untouched, the actual opposite is going to happen.  If we are unprepared for what Scripture tells us is going on, we will find ourselves in a bad predicament. We will be like the soldier who had to fight in the war that he wanted no part of, but in realizing he could not avoid it, found he was unprepared for it and suddenly wished with all his heart that he had been preparing for it.

Matthew 24:3 tells of how the disciples approached Jesus and asked Him what the signs of the end times would be.  He told them of wars, rumors of wars, and how believers would be hated by all nations for His name's sake. Stop and think about this for a minute.  We have become so accustomed to hearing about another war or turbulent times that we just tune it out.  But what about where Jesus warns that believers will be hated because of their choosing to follow Him? It should worry us that we are possibly unprepared and simply not ready for what is going to happen to us if we continue to stand with Christ.  We cannot hide from it and we cannot ignore it or wish it away. So we really only have  one option....to be prepared.

How do we prepare? We must be a people who walk close with our Lord in prayer, and who are in tune with the Holy Spirit for His promptings, leading and guidance .  We must be a people who study the Bible in order to be fed spiritually.  We must fast and pray and seek the Lord's face to find out what He would have us do. 

We must be a people who recognize that there are things happening all about us in the unseen realms, particularly as we are going about our normal, daily routines. It is easy to let our guard down when we feel our lives are just going along and not much is happening.  It is then that the enemy is more likely to attack because he will find us in a state of unpreparedness. We must be a people who have made the decision that we are willing to go to battle. We must be a people who do all we can to remain spiritually strong. And all the while we are doing these things we must remember to not allow fear to enter into our hearts as that will be our Achilles heel.

One of the main weapons the enemy tries to use against believers is fear, because he knows it  leads to our doubting and questioning God rather than standing alongside Him in the battle and being in tune with what He wants us to do.  Satan will do whatever he can to try to dissuade us,  distract us, and to ultimately  get us to walk away because it is all too much to deal with. But remember, we are taught in Scripture that the battle is ultimately the Lord's and it is He who will prevail, but we still must play an important part in all of this. We are to be His foot soldiers, doing what He commands.  Second Timothy 2:4 says, " No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer." In other words, we have to be working alongside God and be open to being used by Him and not allow our daily, earthly concerns get in the way. 

Charles Spurgeon said, " The Christian soldier hath no gun and no sword, for he fighteth not with men.  It is with 'spiritual wickedness in high places' that he fights, and with other principalities and powers than with those that sit on thrones and hold sceptres in their hands."

We are to fight the good fight.  Matthew 24:13 challenges us when it says "But he who endures to the end shall be saved." It implies that it will not be easy and that some will decide to give up,  give in and walk away. We must not allow our earthly concerns, or lack of desire to be involved, to be what keeps us from fighting and enduring to the end. We are promised in the Scriptures that what awaits us is far more worthwhile and everlasting than what we could ever hope to attain in this world.

Preparing for the unexpected...

Chapter Fifty-eight:

If there is one thing we learn very quickly in this life is that the unexpected happens.  It can come in many forms, from losing one's job to a sudden death in the family to getting diagnosed with an unexpected illness.  How we are prepared for the unexpected goes a long way in how it will affect us.  For some of us, we like to try to plan ahead as we do not like the unexpected, but what this causes is anticipatory stress, as we struggle with the "what if's" and "maybes".  We believe that if we can plan and prepare that somehow it will soften the blow of anything that may come our way.  In actuality all it does is increase our stress levels and affect our walk with God because we rely more upon our own strength and do not lean upon the strength of our Heavenly Father as much as we should.

Some things that we may face are  temptations, unexpected problems/crises, and attacks of the enemy.  How do you think you would fare if you were prepared and prayed up before any of these situations happened...do you think you would fare better?  However many of us wait until a problem happens or a temptation is in front us before we begin to pray for strength or guidance. 

 

Anticipatory prayer is needed because as the saying goes, the battle is often lost before it is fought. What this means is that due to distractions, laziness, or unpreparedness, we lose our battle before it even begins. Throughout the Old Testament we see the example of Israel and how they fought their battles.  When they were prayed up and following the one true God, they won their battles.  However, when they got lazy in worshipping God, began incorporating foreigners' heathen ways into their camp, and lost sight of their need of God, they ultimately always lost the battle, often to the point that they were overtaken and incorporated into another nation (II Kings, Chapter 25 ).

But what if we went about our daily lives with an attitude of anticipatory prayer so that we were not caught off guard, what then?  Would we not be less likely to succumb to temptation, to be sidelined and caught off guard by the unexpected? Temptation usually comes unexpectedly. However, if through anticipatory prayer we are strong in our spirit we would be better able to handle it and deflect it.  For example, we often think of David as an example of a man who really loved God.  But we also know from reading Scripture of his adultery with Bathsheba and his ultimately having a hand in the death of her husband. 

I believe this fall into sin resulted from him not walking as close to God as he had in the days leading up to the day when he faced off against Goliath.  His lack of closeness to God allowed temptation and sin to overtake him.  He ended paying a heavy price for his rebellion and sin, that being the death of the son he fathered with Bathsheba.  So, it goes to show that even the most righteous person can succumb to sin and its consequences if they do not walk daily in an attitude of anticipatory prayer.  

We have to remember that problems in life, and most importantly attacks by the enemy, are usually not forewarned. Satan loves to attack out of the blue, when least expected, when he knows we are at our weakest and most unsuspecting.  If he had one set way of attacking us, we would have had it figured out a long time ago and his attacks would be fruitless.  But the converse is true. One time he attacks one way and the next time it is another way.  We can never be sure just when he plans to strike or how. In fact, many of us have attacks come our way through the week that unless we are walking in anticipatory prayer and in the spirit we would otherwise just chalk it up to being a part of life and would not realize our need to fend off the enemy.   We often walk unprepared and pay the price.

The best example of walking in anticipatory prayer can be found the night before the crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane.   Jesus was there praying because He knew what was before Him. His night of prayer and crying out to God strengthened Him so He could finish His mission here on earth, which culminated in His brutal death and triumphant resurrection, a sacrifice that now offers redemption for all mankind.  He had anticipated what was to come and prepared for it by the best way He knew how, by going into a time of serious prayer. Unfortunately His disciples did not share His sense of preparedness, as Scripture tells us that even though He asked them to stay awake and pray, He later found that they had all fallen asleep. 

Just as Israel walked with God before them as a ball of fire by night and a cloud by day, we, too must walk in an attitude of anticipatory prayer knowing God goes before us.  Do not let your guard down.  When Jesus warned us, "Watch and pray..." (Matthew 26:41), He was telling us that we need to be walking daily in an anticipatory, prayerful manner.  Yes, there will be times of change and trouble in our lives.   Psalm 34:19 says, "The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all".  Our focus through anticipatory prayer should be that the battle is the Lord's, and if that is our focus, we can walk in peace as we go about our day, knowing that God is in control regardless of our circumstances.  

  

A. W. Tozer summed up anticipatory prayer this way when he said, "He has little strength because his prayers beforehand were few...the person whose prayers are strong and many will not collapse when the trouble comes."