Devotions

Paul advises, “Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” (Ephesians 6:16). Paul elaborates on how we are to do battle with the enemy, who sends tormenting thoughts of fear.

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:11–12).

Beloved, the conflict we are in is not a human struggle that can be fought in an earthly sphere. This battle takes place in a supernatural realm. The truth is, if you are in Christ, then you face the wrath of Satan. Do not mistake this demonic wrath for the judgment of God. The wrath you’re up against is that of a devil gone mad because he knows his time to come against God’s people is short.

Satan’s attacks are aimed especially at those who have devoted themselves to walk faithfully in the Lord. Again and again, the Psalmist boasts, “I take refuge in the Lord.” Here is a picture of a righteous saint who fully trusts in God. Yet, because of this very testimony of trust, he is targeted by Satan. His unswerving faith is the reason for the fiery arrows sent at him from hell. “The wicked [Satan and his minions] bend their bow . . . that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart” (Psalm 11:2).

So, what are the fiery arrows out of hell that are directed at you and me? They are fearful, disturbing thoughts about our future and about God’s care for us. The devil is a liar and an accuser, and his every assault is aimed directly at our faith.

When you are distressed — when you feel overwhelmed with fear, laid low by great affliction, troubled by concerns for your future — God says there is a secret hiding place. It is a place of comfort where we find composure for our souls.

Where is this secret hiding place? It is a chamber in your mind that Isaiah describes this way: “You [the Lord] will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3, my italics).

When God tells us, “Shut the doors,” this is what He means. He is showing us the need to shut out the many troubling voices in our head. We are to close the door to all thoughts about tomorrow, about world events. Jesus told us, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things” (Matthew 6:34). The Lord who has faithfully brought us this far will not fail us in the days ahead.

Consider these cries of the Psalmist:

“Be merciful to me, O God . . . for my soul trusts in You; and in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by. I will cry out to God Most High, to God who performs all things for me. He shall send from heaven and save me; He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. God shall send forth His mercy and His truth” (Psalm 57:1–3, my italics).

“When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me” (63:6–8).

Here is the definition of the gospel ministry, according to the apostle Paul: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:1-5).

Paul is very clear with Timothy: “I charge you as a minister of God: reprove, rebuke, exhort. That is fulfilling your ministry!”

I ask you in complete honesty: Is the whole ministry of Christ’s church being fulfilled today? Or have we settled for a church of comfort and pleasure? I can promise you, if pastors are allowed to be pastors — if worship leaders are allowed to spend as much time in prayer as at rehearsal and sound check — if people come seeking biblical truth instead of just fleshly comfort — then our joy will return. Our purpose will return. And our mission will be clear.

When that happens, we will testify with the prophet Jeremiah, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16). Then, when a stranger enters the door of our church, he will fall on his face in holy awe. He will realize he has found the answer he has hungered for his entire life. And he will cry, “Surely God is in this place!” Amen! May it be so, Lord Jesus.

Jesus was traveling by boat with His disciples (Mark 5:1-18), when He took them across the Sea of Galilee to the region of Gerasenes, a land inhabited by Gentiles. When Jesus got out of the boat, a demon-possessed man ran toward Him and fell to his knees. The demons shouted at Jesus, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God!” And the demons begged Him to have mercy on them.

Jesus asked the man, “What is your name?” But his answer came again from the demons within him: “My name is Legion, for we are many.”

A herd of pigs was feeding nearby, and the demons begged Jesus to allow them to enter into the animals. The demons knew that they had no authority and power in the presence of God’s glory. Satan loves to taunt and ridicule helpless people, but when Jesus shows up, the devil quickly turns into the weak and pathetic loser he really is.

That is another aspect of life that has not changed. Only today, Satan is forced to cower and hide not just at the sight of Jesus but of any follower of Christ. The name of Jesus in the mouth of a believer has awesome power!

Giving the demons permission to enter into the body of a bunch of nasty pigs was a fitting irony, and Jesus let them do it. At once the pigs plunged off a nearby cliff to their deaths. To me, this has always seemed a perfect foreshadowing of what Satan and his demons have to look forward to on the Day of Judgment.

Nicky Cruz, internationally known evangelist and prolific author, turned to Jesus Christ from a life of violence and crime after meeting David Wilkerson in New York City in 1958. The story of his dramatic conversion was told first in The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson and then later in his own best-selling book Run, Baby, Run. 

I have a short message for those who are experiencing a painful, overwhelming situation. I am not speaking to those who now enjoy a time of rest from suffering, who are not in any kind of pain or sorrow. Thank God for those times of quiet rest.

Rather, I receive many letters from precious followers of Jesus who are living with incredible inner sorrow and crisis situations: divorce, children on drugs or in jail, the death of a spouse. A woman deeply in love with the Lord grieves over the death of her children, who suffocated in a fire. A pastor grieves for his wife, who left him and his children for a lesbian lover.

I have a message for you godly people who are suffering. In Psalm 40, David cried, “Innumerable evils have surrounded me. . . Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me!” (Psalm 40:12-13). “Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You. . . But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God” (40:16-17). 

I have been so blessed and comforted by this one line in verse 17: “The Lord thinks upon me.” Imagine that! The Lord who created all things, the God of this universe, thinks about me. Even now, in your hour of need, His thoughts are about you.

When Israel was captive in Babylon, mourning over the loss of homes and families, God sent word to them through Jeremiah: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). God said to His people, “Your nightmare is going to end. I have only good, loving thoughts toward you, and if you seek Me with all your heart, you will find Me.”

Pour out your heart to the Lord. He is thinking of you!