Devotions

Years ago the Lord impressed upon my heart to start a Bible study in a little country church in a very small town called Pendleton. This was an area of Canada with no Christian testimony for about forty square miles that we were aware of.

I went to the board of the church and told them who I was and the reason I wanted to rent their church. They ended up allowing us to use the building free of charge, and they even provided a caretaker to turn on the heat and shovel the snow in winter.

I immediately put together flyers advertising the Bible study and sent them out. The very first night, there was a snowstorm and nobody came! I ended up at the church with my six-year-old son, Jason, and my brother-in-law, who was the worship leader. My brother-in-law asked, “Should we just go home?”

“No,” I replied. “The Lord has called me to do this, so we are going to have a service tonight!” And we did. We worshiped God, my son shared his testimony, and we all had a great time!

I continued to hold the Bible study week after week. Sometimes there were six people in attendance, sometimes only four. But eventually, over the course of a couple of years, the Bible study grew into a church. One church grew into two, plus a Christian school and a food bank — a testimony that still exists today.

What would have happened if I had just gone home on that first night of the Bible study? I could have said, “This is pointless — it’s not worth the effort.”

How sad it will be for some people when they arrive at the throne of God and realize that the Lord’s promptings were there to do something that would have brought honor to His name, yet they did not obey.

Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 at the invitation of the founding pastor, David Wilkerson, and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. 

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11).

Believers in war-torn Iraq share, “Hard times are not coming — for us, hard times have been here for years.” They have known hardships for generations and they have learned to cling to faith. Because they have put on the whole armor of God, they are equipped to withstand evil and preach the gospel to those around them.

I truly believe the majority of godly people in the world today are under attack from hell, enduring devilish, seemingly hopeless situations. What about you? If you are not presently facing a test of faith, I urge you to be very thankful. But remain humble and be careful that you don’t boast of your own strength or faith.

Satan waits until the tested one is weary, drained of all strength and endurance. He waits until all prayers seem to go unanswered, until everything seems hopeless and we come to our wits’ end. It happened to Peter when he watched his Master being humiliated before the Sanhedrin (see Matthew 26:57-58). And it happened to Job when he was forced to ponder the loss of everything dear to him.

Questions begin to rise: “God, where are You? Why are my prayers not being answered?” Be careful, for right at that point Satan will implant his awful lie: “God has forsaken you. He does not hear you.”

Yet, God has not forsaken you — and He never will. He has instructed us to be prepared by putting on the whole armor of God and then He assures us that He will never leave us. “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Right now He is telling you, “I will never leave you.”

We must be fully aware of the enemy’s schemes and methods. The most powerful weapon in Satan’s arsenal is a vicious lie — from the master liar! What is his biggest lie? That God is not faithful to His people.

Just as he has done throughout history, Satan wants to attack our homes, our marriages, our children, our health, our jobs and careers, our very belief in the Lord. Jesus told Peter, “Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31).

You may wonder, “Exactly how bad can it get for a believer? What does God allow when He gives permission for us to be sifted?” I direct you to Hebrews 11 where we read of the multitude of trials endured by martyrs and heroes of the faith. Scripture says of them, “they obtained a good testimony through faith” (see 11:39).

The same kind of suffering and hardship these early believers suffered is happening to believers throughout the world today. Christians in the Middle East are under grave threat for their faith and many have had to run for their lives, fleeing their homes, jobs and churches. Many have even been killed — and still those that remain minister the gospel in alien nations where they have been banished by war. Through it all, they have found that God is faithful to His children. 

“But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail” (Luke 22:32). To me, this is one of the most encouraging verses in all of Scripture. Peter was enduring a severe trial and Jesus was assuring him that no matter what he might face, his faith would not fail.

Even though Peter had denied Christ, God did not forsake him — not for a moment. This once-fearless disciple, now broken and anguishing over his failure, was never for a moment on his own. And, beloved, neither are we!

No matter what your trial may be — what pain you’re suffering or what sorrow you are enduring — Jesus is interceding for you. At this very moment, in the midst of your storms, He is pleading your cause and He has never let you go.

In Luke 22:31 Jesus warns Peter that Satan desires to sift him as wheat but at the end of verse 32, He gave him this strong exhortation: “And when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”

Beloved, here is assurance and encouragement for us all. The Lord of creation holds us in His very hand and He tells us, as he did Peter, “Get up! Go now! Do not focus on your failure; rather, get to work for My kingdom. Feed my sheep. Warn my precious ones about the enemy’s devices at work against them. And tell them I hold them in My hands, through every trial.”    

We have a tender, loving Father who is touched by the feelings of our infirmities. Even Jesus wept in His trying hour. He knows our pain firsthand and He has sent His Holy Spirit to comfort us and speak hope and peace to our souls.

Interestingly, the world observes us as we face challenges, and expects us to sing a song in the midst of our hardest times. We see an example of this in the Word.

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst of it. For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, and those who plundered us requested mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’” (Psalm 137:1-4).

This psalm describes Israel’s captivity by the Babylonians, when God’s people had lost everything, including their homeland. Still, their captors wanted to hear the songs of victory that the Israelites were famous for. “Sing to us! We have heard about the great victory songs you offer to God so play them for us!” I don’t believe this demand was made in mockery alone; the Babylonians sincerely longed to hear a testimony. Their own religion had left them empty, dry and hopeless.

Likewise, today the world demands a song of victory from God’s people. What they really want to know is, “How are you going to react in this present crisis? We’ve heard that you think your God is faithful and powerful. So do you trust Him in times like these? Were your songs of deliverance in good times like a child’s fantasy? Or does your faith really hold up when hard times come?”

Our society is desperate to find hope and peace in these troubled days. They long to know the truth of Isaiah 26:3: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You.” And they will look to God’s children for a testimony.