“…We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed;
We are perplexed, but not in despair;
Persecuted, but not forsaken;
Cast down, but not destroyed…” 2 Corinthians 4:8 AKJV
Father, if we weren’t aware that there was trouble we could wake up to each day feeling carefree and go about our lives peacefully, with nothing nagging at us to spoil our mood or threaten to disrupt plans we have for ourselves.
There are troubles though. Life is in no way “care free”. Difficult and troubling, intimidating and threatening circumstances exist… within our personal selves, in our family relationships, in the community, country and world at large… and they impose themselves on us without let up. And if we haven’t closed our eyes and ears to them we cannot help but be affected.
Distress, despair, a sense of being forsaken and alone, a defeat from which there is no rebound… they are the outcomes in the lives of those who have no belief in, no reliance on… One who is greater than the spirit and chaos of this world… at their core they don’t really have hope… a “certain hope”.
The dye was cast at Eden, not for peace but for war. It started there and has continued in all its many forms and we will suffer these wars until You bring it all to an end.
People Father, Your created beings… will suffer the pains and “miserableness’s” of diseases in their bodies, once bright minds will diminish and fail, loved ones and compassionate help mates will take on and bear the burdens of care giving.
Spouses will fight a continual war against worldly lures and an inclination to those things that would split what You have joined.
Parents will continue to war against powerful forces at play to take away their authority and seduce their children, aided sometimes by a spirit of rebelliousness in the children, sometimes in the parents, a chaffing at the “imposition” that attentiveness and involvement require of them.
Citizens will continue to war against the constant onslaught of ideologies and changes that are pursued violently, or embrace a moral code that is contrary to Your Ways and by which, how You would have us think and guide our lives.
Nations will war against nations, just as they always have and always will… all fueled by hatred and justified and perpetuated with deceptions and lies and manipulations… with the consequences of needless, tragic human misery and loss of life.
No one is unaffected, no one escapes war… not really.
We have a prayer Father.
For those of us who, by Your grace, walk in covenant with You… that we continue with You faithfully…
Loving You…
Loving one another…
Ordering and living our lives according to Your moral code, Your Word… in complete trust and obedience…
Demonstrating these to others in word and action.
For those Father, who are warring trusting in their own rightness, wisdom and power, that You would provide an encounter with them that leaves them convicted, humbled and surrendered to You... glad for it…
And able Father… both them and us… to…
Though surrounded by trouble, not be distressed…
Though perplexed by circumstances not despair…
Be we persecuted, know we are not forsaken…
Though we may be knocked down, we will get back up.
To You be the glory!
In Yeshua’s name we pray.
Amen.
Comments