“Prayer and thanksgiving silence your enemies and bring clarity to Christ’s tender heart for you. Victory already belongs to you!”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – November 22, 2023
O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens! Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger. Psalm 8:1-2, NKJV
Followers of Jesus have an enemy. Cunning. Proud. Deadly. Our enemy is the most effective when perceived as non-existent. Some wrongly assume the concept of the devil is an ignorant, naïve person’s leftover idea from the Middle Ages. This self-deception is the enemy’s ultimate goal for believers not to believe in an agent of evil…Satan himself. Yet, the former angel fell from heaven to earth and still roams back and forth across the globe, instigating evil insurrections and sly sinful schemes to disrupt human freedoms and distort authentic faith in God. Scripture leaves no room for doubt on the murderous, lying strategy of God’s enemy (likewise the enemy of His children), as sinful angels who were cast from heaven to hell. “He [the devil] was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.” John 8:44, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell.” 2 Peter 2:4. So, since we have so real of an enemy, how shall we engage and defeat it? Passivity is not an option. Wise, discerning Christians execute a plan to engage and defeat Satan.
David, who was seasoned and humbled by engagement with his enemies, boldly proclaimed the weapons of prayer and praise. He begins by declaring the divine excellence of God’s name with praise and glory to the Almighty throughout the earth and above the heavens. All of the Lord’s creation exalts His name! Beginning with the beauty of nature, then progressing to the pinnacle of praise to God from the mouth of babes. All human beings, if honest, should be spellbound, with reverential awe and grateful worship over the breathtaking beauty of heavenward mountains facing upward in worship, raging but obedient seas, reverent trees, and the precious purity of a cooing infant gently pointing us back to our loving Creator. Our enemies are dumbfounded when confronted with the glory and praise of God and His eternal love expressed by His creation.
C.S. Lewis, in Screwtape Letters, his creative exposé of Satan, exposes our enemy’s abhorrence to music and silence in the Christian’s cadence of living life,
[Screwtape writes] Music and silence — how I detest them both! … no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise — Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile … We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. We have already made great strides in that direction as regards the Earth. The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough, or anything like it. Research is in progress.
As Lewis reveals, our enemy can subtly use the background white noise of worry or shame to numb us to reality, like the volume of a home TV turned low and murmuring about, not really being watched but influencing its listeners with its ever-droning background message of doubt and despair. Noise distracts disciples from praise to God and silent prayer, ever breeding a heart of fear.
Start by acknowledging you have an enemy who is first an enemy of God and, secondly, your enemy. Be ever aware and vigilant to use the spiritual weapons of prayer, praise, and truth to engage the father of lies with courage and faith. Similar to how infants depend on their parents for nurture and protection, you must also grow in humble dependence on your heavenly Father. Trust Him daily to fight your unseen enemy by faith, putting on His spiritual armor of salvation, prayer, faith, righteousness, the power of the gospel, the Word of God, and the fullness of the Holy Spirit, praying always in the Spirit. Mature disciples grow in dependence rather than grow lax in longing for the Lord’s love and wisdom. Prayer and thanksgiving silence your enemies and bring clarity to Christ’s tender heart for you. Victory already belongs to you!
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I come against the enemy with grateful praise in the power of the Holy Spirit through Christ’s love and in Jesus’ name.
Application
Which element of the Lord’s spiritual armor is most necessary for you in this season of successfully defeating the enemy?
Related Reading
2 Kings 19; Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21; 1 Timothy 5:14-15
Worship Resource
David and Melissa Helser: Raise a Hallelujah!
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