‘Hear the
Word of the Lord.’ How, Lord, are we to listen to Your Word? We are to
‘tremble at Your Word.’ We are to ‘drink deeply with delight’ (Isaiah 66:5,10-11).
There is to be the fear of the Lord. There is to be joy in the Lord.
These are not opposites. They belong together - ‘Work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling... Rejoice in the Lord’ (Philippians
2:12; 3:1). May we hear Your warning, and ‘tremble’. To those who ‘sin
deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth’, You say this:
‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’
(Hebrews 10:26,31). We hear Your promise, and we ‘rejoice’: ‘The
eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting
arms’ (Deuteronomy 33:27). Help us to ‘hear the Word of the Lord’ - the
warning as well as the promise!
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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