"O LORD God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You?" 2 Chronicles 20:6 When faced with what appeared to be certain destruction, King Jehoshaphat set himself to seek the Lord. Today's scripture is part of his prayer. Note that instead of rehashing his fears to the Lord and lamenting about how overpowered by their enemies their small tribe was, Jehoshaphat centered his prayer and thoughts on just how big and powerful his God truly is.
"Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it." Numbers 23:20 Take time to reread today's scripture. They are precious words, and they reveal how God sees you and me today. They were spoken by a prophet named Balaam, who had been hired by Balak, the king of Moab, to invoke a curse to drive his enemy, the Israelites, from his territory. However, when Balaam opened his mouth to curse, blessings from God flowed out upon the Israelites instead (Num. 23:21–24)!
Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength....For he shall be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when good comes. Jeremiah 17:5–6 One of the saddest things about a man who trusts in his strengths and self-efforts—"who ....makes flesh his strength"—is that he cannot see good when it comes his way. As a pastor, I have seen, down through the years, people who don't put their trust in the Lord when it comes to their marriages, finances, and other areas of weakness. They are determined to trust in their own efforts and tend to be rather arrogant and frustrated with the people around them.
Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. Romans 15:33 I'm sure you want the Lord to manifest Himself as the God of peace when you are fearful. So, let's go deeper into what the "God of peace" means. Don't forget that Paul was Jewish, so when he said, "the God of peace be with you," he was saying "Jehovah Shalom be with you." "Jehovah Shalom" is Hebrew for "the God of peace." Now, the first appearance of the name Jehovah Shalom is in the Old Testament story of Gideon in Judges 6.
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1 There is a lot of fearmongering everywhere you turn today—on the news, in the papers, via social media, and unfortunately, on Christian media as well. However, it is vital that we do not let fear take over our hearts. As believers, we have no business feeding on fear. If your mind is entangled with knots of anxiety, perhaps it's time for you to examine your mental diet. What have you, consciously or unconsciously, been meditating on? Are you ingesting and believing everything you see in the news reports, or are you living by what the Lord Jesus has purchased for you at Calvary?
A heart at peace gives life to the body. Proverbs 14:30 NIV The best way to know if you are embroiled in the things of the world is to be objective and ask yourself this: "Is my heart troubled?" I believe that the number one killer in the modern world is stress. Medical doctors in my church have told me that if a patient has high blood pressure, they can advise the patient to cut down on sodium. They can also advise their patients to cut down on other excesses such as sugar or cholesterol. But as doctors, there is one thing that they cannot control in their patients, and that is their patients' stress levels.
Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. Psalm 91:9-10 When I was a student, I took on a part-time job in a factory that manufactured refrigerators. Like any teenager, I had just wanted to earn some extra pocket money. It wasn't a complicated job. I was part of an assembly line and all I had to do was use an electric drill to create an opening and to fasten a condenser securely onto the back of each refrigerator. I would be buzzing away on the power drill all day, earning my keep.
Not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. (Philippians 3:9) The grace of God is the unearned, undeserved, and unmerited favor of God. When God answers you in your most undeserving moment, that is grace. That is His amazing, unmerited favor! At your lowest point, in your darkest hour, His light shines through for you, and you become a recipient of His unmerited favor, and a recipient of favor can't help but want to extend grace to others.
But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head. I cried to the Lord with my voice, and He heard me from His holy hill. Psalm 3:3-4 When we are going through a difficult time or dealing with a heavy burden of stress, anxiety, fear, or condemnation, it's extremely challenging to make the paradigm shift from self-occupation to Christ-occupation. So how do we do it? To answer that question, let me show you how David encouraged himself in the Lord whenever he was fearful, anxious, or depressed.
"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" Matthew 7:11 Our enemy the devil is well aware that the moment you learn to receive God's grace, you will start to reign in life. So, he has been working hard to prevent you from receiving the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. The devil has been using controversy as a device down through church history to prevent believers from having access to the most powerful truths of God.
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