“Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency” (Psalm 73:13).
The writer of this psalm, Asaph, was confused by his sufferings, especially when he observed the easy life of the wicked around him. He nearly slipped into a pit of unbelief, ready to accuse God of forsaking him, of being unconcerned. In fact, he almost quit the battle completely.
What is the way to victory for God’s people?
First, dive into God’s Word, lay hold of your special promise, take it into the secret place of prayer, and hold God to it. I have favorite promises from the Bible that I hold up to God whenever I cry out to Him.
“What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matthew 7:9-11).
Are you being pressed on all sides and tested beyond your endurance? Is your strength nearly gone, leaving you on the brink of giving up? If this is the case, what is your way to victory? I can tell you how God continues to bring me out.
First, do not think you are experiencing some strange, unique battle. On the contrary! You are in good company. Remember Job, Jeremiah, Elijah, David, Paul? What you are going through has been common to believers throughout the centuries.
“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock” (Matthew 7:24).
Beloved, you are not building upon the rock if you need a preacher to thunder at you to obey God. Or if you need a set of rules laid out for you. You don’t need a rule book, you need a passionate love for Jesus.
Did you know that Satan sometimes puts people in league together just to hinder your labors for God? They come together in an effort to discourage you or discount your ministry. But if you are on a divine mission — called to do a work for the Lord — no plot against you will work.
Nehemiah was called by God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The work was progressing wonderfully when Satan stirred up a hornets’ nest to hinder it all. Four very prominent leaders joined in a plot “to do [Nehemiah] mischief” (see Nehemiah 6:2).
If you don’t deal with your doubts, you will be given over to a spirit of grumbling. You will live that way and die that way because your doubts cannot simply be suppressed. They must be pulled up by the roots!
Just three days after Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, they encountered a new test. They had been singing, shaking their tambourines and testifying to the power and strength of a mighty God. They were boasting that He was leading and protecting them — and then they arrived at Marah, which means “waters of bitterness.”
“Ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord” (James 1:6-7).
Many Christians sit in the house of God and murmur and complain, as if God doesn’t hear them. But God does hear our murmurings — accusations that He does not care for us, insinuations that He has let us down.
God warned me not to give voice to nagging doubts and fear — not to my wife or friends or colleagues. He said to take those doubts to Him and ask Him to heal my unbelief.
“They that carried us away required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” (Psalm 137:3-4).
The people of God were in the hardest place of their lifetime and as they were carried away, their captors required a song of them. Yet, all they felt was depression, despair and hopelessness.
Today people want to be everything but a servant. In fact, their pride is repelled by the idea of servanthood. A popular Scripture is, “Thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7).
What is Paul really saying here? He is explaining that a son who has been taught correctly knows he is legally the king’s heir with all the rights that accompany the position. But he loves his father so much that he chooses the role of a servant.
When you are shut in with God in prayer, the Holy Spirit will always lead you to God’s revealed Word. Christ is the living Word and He will build up your faith.
We are commanded:
“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. . . . Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. . . . And take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:11, 13, 17).