Lord,
we've read good things about King Josiah (2 Chronicles 34:15,33) - but
it wasn't all good: "He did not listen to the words of Neco from the
mouth of God ... " (2 Chronicles 35:22-24). After Josiah's time, there
was terrible spiritual decline (2 Chronicles 36:1-2 / 2 Kings 23:31-32; 2
Chronicles 36:,5,9,11-12). We think of today's world. We wonder, "Is
there any hope for the future?" Help us to
draw encouragement from this: "The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus,
king of Persia ... to build Him a house at Jerusalem" (2 Chronicles
36:22-23) - and help us to say to our neighbours, "Let us go to the
House of the Lord" (Psalm 122:1). Help us, Lord, to keep on believing
that the time of Your blessing may not be far away.
We thank You, Lord, that our determined enemy - Satan - is Your defeated enemy. To us, the devil seems so powerful. In Your eyes, He is defeated - defeated by Jesus, our crucified Saviour and risen Lord. Jesus has triumphed over Satan. He has won the victory for us (1 John 3:8; Hebrews 2:14-15). Lord, Your Word says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 5:7). Will he really flee from us? He flees from Jesus - but, surely, not from us? Have we not forgotten something? - Jesus won the victory for us. He gives His victory to us. Help us to resist the devil - in the victorious Name of Jesus. He will flee from us. Why? Because Jesus is Lord over Satan. It's not us he's fleeing from. It's Jesus. When the devil comes 'knocking on our door', help us to send Jesus to the door - and send him packing!
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