Lord, You are not only ‘the Holy One of Israel’. You are ‘the God of the whole
earth’ (Isaiah 54:5). We thank You that the Gospel is for ‘all nations’. The ministry of Christ’s
apostles began in ‘Jerusalem’. We thank You that it did not end there. The Gospel was
to be taken ‘to the ends of the earth’ (Luke 24:46-47; Acts 1:8). Taking
the Gospel out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth was not easy.
The apostles faced much opposition. We thank You that they stood upon Your promise: ‘No
weapon formed against you shall prosper’ (Isaiah 54:17). When, Lord, we face opposition,
help us to take our stand on Your Word: ‘If God is for us, who can be
against us?’ (Romans 8:31). Even when our words seem to fall on stony
ground, give us the strength that we need to keep on speaking the Word of Your love: ‘With
everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your
Redeemer’ (Isaiah 54:8).
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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