Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please take the time to take in Steven Curtis Chapman’s poignant and powerful lyric as he sings His Strength Is Perfect. … proclaiming the reality that God’s strength is perfect to cover our weaknesses.
Highlight Passage - NKJV Ephesians 6: 10-11 … Standing in God’s full armor to do battle against the enemy …
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
============
Highlight Context #1 - Ephesians 6: 10-18 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK … God’s full armor for doing daily battle
============
Reference Passage #1 … John 10: 27-28 [NKJV] …
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
Reference Passage #2 … 1st Peter 5: 8 [NKJV] …
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because[a] your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Reference Passage #3 … 1st John 4: 4 [NKJV] …
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
Reference Passage #4 … Luke 9: 23 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK … Here it is again - almost every day;… Jesus’ telling His followers the path to security in Satan’s world
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Cindy Hess Kasper, used a word picture which I often use when I’m teaching in the ministry God led my wife and I to found which helps men walk free from the clutches of Satan and habitual sexual sin (see our website at this link ). Kasper refers to Peter’s metaphor of satan being like a roaring lion, … “the king of the jungle,” as he’s often referred; and it’s a useful metaphor to describe the powerful, common foe of Christians in this world.
It’s an apt word picture because of the way the lion hunts his prey. Maybe you’ve studied it; … I have. The pride of lions stalks a potential herd of weak sheep or gazelles in the bush; and then the alpha male gets upwind from the flock/herd and roars at his loudest. The flock (let’s imagine some sheep) hears the lion, and smells him in the wind; and most of the sheep, especially the immature and weak ones, bolt and run away from the roar of the lion. What they don’t know is that the females in the pride have set themselves into a semicircle down wind of the flock; and if the sheep run away from the roar, in fear, the females will be waiting to get the weak ones, especially any who are wounded.
Satan is like that. He knows that the easy prey in God’s flock are those who are the weakest; and many of the men we see in our ministry have been severely weakened and wounded by their own obsessive-compulsive sin patterns. And in fear, when Satan stalks them with temptations, like p0rnography or other XXX devices, these men are easy prey for the stalking “king of the jungle.”
However, we in Battle Plan Ministries teach - and prayerfully condition these men - to do what the Apostle Paul was teaching persecuted Christians in his letter to the church in Ephesus; and that is to prepare for the enemy by putting on the “full armor of God” [see the Ephesians 6: 10-18 linked above]. Because as Steven Curtis Chapman sings in today’s linked song, God’s strength is perfect (in His full armor) to cover our weaknesses.
In God’s flock, we’ve got to learn to do what Jesus tried to teach His flock, … i.e., to stay close to Him, … the Good Shepherd. Because to return to the word picture of the lion and the flock, the mature and well-trained in the flock actually move toward the lion’s roar; because they’ve been trained to stay close to the Shepherd who will always move to the roar of the lion to protect His flock; and the Shepherd will lead them to safety.
Mature Christians know and believe the truth of John 10: 27-28 and 1st John 4: 4 … that we serve a “Good Shepherd,” Who will protect us; and His Spirit within us is actually stronger and more powerful than that “king of the jungle,” who is stalking his prey and roaring to create fear in the flock.
So, fellow Christian, if you hear the lion roaring or you smell him stalking you with temptation, run TO the roar and follow the Good Shepherd.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, … Good Shepherd, I know that You are always here to protect me. Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
No comments:
Post a Comment