Devotions

Years ago, God put it on my heart to start a boys’ home on Long Island. I truly sensed the Lord was behind this work. However, after just eighteen months, state officials imposed such stringent regulations on the operation of the home that we had no option but to close it down.

We’d taken in four boys during the brief time we were open. After we closed down, I lost touch with them. I had always thought that venture was one of the greatest failures of my time. For more than three decades, I wondered why God ever allowed us to move forward with it.

Recently I received a letter from a young man named Clifford.

He wrote, “Brother David, I was one of the four boys sent to the home on Long Island. Your houseparents were so loving and kind. They taught us the Bible and took us to church. One day they took us to a church that was holding a tent revival. I was so bitter and despondent. It was there, under the tent, that the Holy Spirit began tugging at my heart. I heard the preacher say, ‘Jesus loves you.’ All the years of pain, confusion and hopelessness came to the surface. I got on my knees and prayed. That was thirty-five years ago. Now God has called me to preach, and he’s moving me into full-time ministry. This ‘thank you’ has been brewing in me all this time. I just want to thank you for caring. I know what the love of God is.”

This man’s letter proves to me that nothing we do for Christ is in vain. That boys’ home was not a failure because one lost, confused boy discovered the meaning of God’s love.

This is the joy that Christ described in his parable, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:4-7, NKJV).

“Then the king of Assyria sent…Rabshakeh…with a great army against Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah” (2 Kings 18:17, NKJV). The Assyrians represent today’s “guides to prosperity.” The devil will parade his army around your walls, people who are powerful, beautiful and seemingly successful in all they undertake. When you see them, you will feel walled in like a prisoner.

The first trick of the man of sin is to question a believer’s commitment to trust the Lord fully. Rabshakeh, whose name means “drunken envoy,” was the king’s ambassador. He mocked the godly, saying, “What confidence is this in which you trust? You speak of having plans and power for war; but they are mere words. And in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me?” (2 Kings 18:19-20).

Satan then adds another twist; he tells you that God is the one behind all your troubles. Assyria’s messenger claimed, “The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’” (2 Kings 18:25). Satan will try to convince you that God is getting even with you, that he is mad at you. This is his slickest lie! He makes you believe God has forsaken you and turned you over to trouble and sorrow. He wants you to think all your problems are the result of God’s punishment for your past sins. Don’t believe it! It is Satan who is out to destroy you.

Our Lord is a deliverer, a fortress. Isaiah said he comes “To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified” (Isaiah 61:3).

No, dear saint, you are not going down. You are simply under attack, being barraged by the enemy’s lies because you have set your heart truly to trust in the Lord. Satan is trying to destroy your faith in God.

We must be prepared for what is coming. We must be ready to spend our days in spiritual warfare, knowing that a flood of iniquity is aimed against the people of God. “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints’” (Jude 1:14, NKJV). Scripture says we are kings and priests unto the Lord, and we represent these tens of thousands going out to battle Satan’s army. Satan wars against us because he hates us greatly (see Revelation 12:17).

If we are determined to lay hold of Christ, we need to realize that we are invincible in Christ. It is written, “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” (1 John 4:4). God says we are guaranteed victory over all the power of the enemy; we have all the host of heaven fighting for us.

May God give us more Holy Ghost fight so that each of us can shout to the world and all the hordes of hell, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35, 37–39).

This is the battle cry of those who hunger for Jesus.

Every man or woman of God is going to become the target of hell’s evil devices once a commitment is made to become a living sacrifice for Christ. The hordes of hell will be unleashed against the one who sets his heart to walk in holiness of faith.

Satan will afflict and set up roadblocks because you have become a real threat to his program of deception. You can resign the warfare, give up, quit and become a dull, fruitless wanderer.

For me, I choose to resist the devil’s plot, rise up in faith and resume the fight. Satan cannot keep down one who truly trusts in the Lord.

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it — lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?” (Luke 14:28-30, NKJV).

Christ knew many of his followers would not have what it took to see them through. He knew they would turn back and not finish the race. I believe this is the most tragic condition possible for a believer. They start out fully intending to lay hold of Christ, to grow into a mature disciple and become more like Jesus; then they drift away. Such a person is the one who laid a foundation and could not finish because he did not first count the cost.

What a joy it is to meet those who are indeed finishing the race! These believers are growing in the wisdom and knowledge of Christ. They are being transformed daily, from moment to moment. Paul says to them encouragingly, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). It is not heaven these believers seek but Christ in his glory!

I know that many who read this particular message are in the process of pausing or taking a step backward. It may seem like a small step, but it will cause a swift descent away from his love. If this is true of you, realize the Holy Spirit is calling you all the way back, back to repentance, self-denial and surrender. At this very moment, time is a big factor. If you ever intend to lay hold of Christ, do it now. See it through!

In the book 1 Corinthians, Paul was responding to a letter he had received from a Corinthian family of Christians who had reported some problems in the church.

Part of his letter says, “But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak” (1 Corinthians 8:7-9, ESV).

Many commentaries pronounce that this chapter is where strong Christians are having to placate weak Christians, and that interpretation implies Paul should be saying to these weak Christians, “Come on, guys, grow up. Start eating meat sacrificed to idols. It’s no big thing. Go into the bars and temples. Spend your time with these different things. It’s okay for you. Get with it!”

That is actually the opposite of what Paul is saying.

Because of their former associations, some believers are not going to be able to accept or do the same kinds of things that don’t bother certain Christians. In other words, these ‘weak’ believers used to go to these bars. They used to go to these clubs. They used to engage in those kinds of sexual activities. They used to compromise with all these things.

Now all of a sudden, there’s something in their heart that says, “Man, that’s my former life. I can’t go back.” They understand the Word of the Lord when it says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17) and points out that a person who returns to his past poor choices is like a dog going back to its own vomit (see Proverbs 26:11).

They truly grasp the prayer “Oh God, keep my conscience pure.”

This is not works-based faith. This is not me earning my salvation by trying to behave like a good, moral Christian. This has far less to do with morality than it has to do with honoring the righteousness of Christ that is freely given to us. Paul wanted Christ-followers to be people who have a tender conscience and a soft heart toward the Word of the Lord. We are called to honor Christ in every part of our lives.