RR “Guarding our Relationship with the Lord, Part 5” by Jerry Miller
Shavuah Tov,
Philippians 3:10-11 “My aim is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the sharing of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death—if somehow I might arrive at the resurrection from among the dead.”
In today’s RR we are continuing to consider the importance of guarding our relationship with the Lord. As Sha’ul points out so passionately in the above passage, it is our knowing Him—knowing Yeshua and growing in the joy and blessing of relationship with Him, that is one of the great and wonderful gifts of our salvation life. He saw this “knowing” of the Lord as a process in which we are to be growing over the course of a lifetime. God’s desire for each of us as Yeshua-followers is that we be growing in our relational walk with Him, learning His ways and receiving from His life-giving presence. Our goal is that we become like Yeshua Himself, and this present life is meant to be a learning ground—a beginning point for us growing into His likeness. We have been discussing ways in which satan seeks to hinder us in our experience of this relationship with the Lord. While Yeshua seeks to bring us into a deeper experiencing of this relationship, the enemy seeks to do all that he can to interfere with our walk with God. Thus, we must see the importance of guarding this relationship from the enemy’s influence. So far, we have looked at the impact of unbelief & skepticism, fear & anxiety, judgmental attitudes, anger & argumentative tendencies, and victim thinking, all of which appeal to us as demonic narratives, used by the enemy to interfere with our experience and enjoyment of relationship with our Creator. We must be consciously rejecting these demonic narratives, as the enemy seeks to use them to pull us down and hinder us in our spiritual life.
In today’s RR, I’d like to consider another demonic narrative that we must be guarded against. I’m speaking of the narrative of hopelessness. This is a narrative that tempts us at times when we may not yet be seeing answers to our prayers or breakthroughs that are needed in our lives. There are times when, for any number of reasons, we are tempted to feel like God just isn’t concerned for us or for the situations we may be dealing with. The enemy will tempt us with hopelessness when things just don’t seem to be working out on our behalf the way we would like. We can find ourselves wondering if God is concerned for us at all, or if God is doing anything to help us through difficult things we are dealing with in our lives. Hopelessness can press in when we feel like there are no breakthroughs or solutions in sight.
At the root of hopelessness is the demonic lie that God doesn’t really care about us. But nothing could be further from the truth. Scripture shows us over and over again that God does care and the He is working in our lives. When hopelessness tries to press into our thinking, we must reject it as a lie from the enemy. Hopelessness will have the effect of crippling us in our faith and our capacity to believe God for victory and breakthrough. One of the Psalms that gives us a picture of the battle going on in our minds is Psalm 42, where we find the psalmist experiencing inner turmoil. But then, he exhorts himself with a powerful exhortation in v. 5: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted with me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance” (NKJV). I put the command to “hope in God” in italics for emphasis, because that is truly our answer when tempted with hopelessness. It’s interesting that we find the exhortation to “hope in God” repeated 3 different times in the psalm, obviously for emphasis. Hope is not rooted in our circumstances, but rather, it’s rooted in the help that comes from the countenance—the presence—of the Lord Himself. He is the reason for and the source of our hope.
I’m not suggesting that we won’t at times be tempted with discouragement. But my point is, we don’t have to stay discouraged, as our trust and our joy are found in our relationship with an awesome God who never changes. He is an amazing God who does wondrous things, and we never have to buy into the false narrative of hopelessness. Be vigilant in resisting hopelessness. It seeks to drag us down and drain us of faith and expectation. But God’s Word tells us that God Himself is a God of hope, as Sha’ul encourages us with the words of Romans 15:13. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and shalom in trusting, so you may overflow with hope in the power of the Ruach ha-Kodesh” (TLV).
The enemy wants us to lose sight of the truth that God is a God of hope. Don’t let discouragement rule in your heart to pull you down into hopelessness. The enemy want us to believe that God doesn’t really care about us. He wants us to conclude that hopelessness is a reasonable narrative. This is a false narrative, and it must be firmly rejected as a deception. Boldly declare, even in the face of difficulty or discouragement, “I will hope in God and praise Him for the help of His countenance!”
May the Lord give us grace daily for a walk filled with hope!
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Sun29-Mar-202611th of Nisan, 5786
Ex 33:12-16Isa 34-35Pr 25Ac 24(Rev 18)
Philippians 3:10-11 “My aim is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the sharing of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death—if somehow I might arrive at the resurrection from among the dead.”
In today’s RR we are continuing to consider the importance of guarding our relationship with the Lord. As Sha’ul points out so passionately in the above passage, it is our knowing Him—knowing Yeshua and growing in the joy and blessing of relationship with Him, that is one of the great and wonderful gifts of our salvation life. He saw this “knowing” of the Lord as a process in which we are to be growing over the course of a lifetime. God’s desire for each of us as Yeshua-followers is that we be growing in our relational walk with Him, learning His ways and receiving from His life-giving presence. Our goal is that we become like Yeshua Himself, and this present life is meant to be a learning ground—a beginning point for us growing into His likeness. We have been discussing ways in which satan seeks to hinder us in our experience of this relationship with the Lord. While Yeshua seeks to bring us into a deeper experiencing of this relationship, the enemy seeks to do all that he can to interfere with our walk with God. Thus, we must see the importance of guarding this relationship from the enemy’s influence. So far, we have looked at the impact of unbelief & skepticism, fear & anxiety, judgmental attitudes, anger & argumentative tendencies, and victim thinking, all of which appeal to us as demonic narratives, used by the enemy to interfere with our experience and enjoyment of relationship with our Creator. We must be consciously rejecting these demonic narratives, as the enemy seeks to use them to pull us down and hinder us in our spiritual life.
In today’s RR, I’d like to consider another demonic narrative that we must be guarded against. I’m speaking of the narrative of hopelessness. This is a narrative that tempts us at times when we may not yet be seeing answers to our prayers or breakthroughs that are needed in our lives. There are times when, for any number of reasons, we are tempted to feel like God just isn’t concerned for us or for the situations we may be dealing with. The enemy will tempt us with hopelessness when things just don’t seem to be working out on our behalf the way we would like. We can find ourselves wondering if God is concerned for us at all, or if God is doing anything to help us through difficult things we are dealing with in our lives. Hopelessness can press in when we feel like there are no breakthroughs or solutions in sight.
At the root of hopelessness is the demonic lie that God doesn’t really care about us. But nothing could be further from the truth. Scripture shows us over and over again that God does care and the He is working in our lives. When hopelessness tries to press into our thinking, we must reject it as a lie from the enemy. Hopelessness will have the effect of crippling us in our faith and our capacity to believe God for victory and breakthrough. One of the Psalms that gives us a picture of the battle going on in our minds is Psalm 42, where we find the psalmist experiencing inner turmoil. But then, he exhorts himself with a powerful exhortation in v. 5: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted with me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance” (NKJV). I put the command to “hope in God” in italics for emphasis, because that is truly our answer when tempted with hopelessness. It’s interesting that we find the exhortation to “hope in God” repeated 3 different times in the psalm, obviously for emphasis. Hope is not rooted in our circumstances, but rather, it’s rooted in the help that comes from the countenance—the presence—of the Lord Himself. He is the reason for and the source of our hope.
I’m not suggesting that we won’t at times be tempted with discouragement. But my point is, we don’t have to stay discouraged, as our trust and our joy are found in our relationship with an awesome God who never changes. He is an amazing God who does wondrous things, and we never have to buy into the false narrative of hopelessness. Be vigilant in resisting hopelessness. It seeks to drag us down and drain us of faith and expectation. But God’s Word tells us that God Himself is a God of hope, as Sha’ul encourages us with the words of Romans 15:13. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and shalom in trusting, so you may overflow with hope in the power of the Ruach ha-Kodesh” (TLV).
The enemy wants us to lose sight of the truth that God is a God of hope. Don’t let discouragement rule in your heart to pull you down into hopelessness. The enemy want us to believe that God doesn’t really care about us. He wants us to conclude that hopelessness is a reasonable narrative. This is a false narrative, and it must be firmly rejected as a deception. Boldly declare, even in the face of difficulty or discouragement, “I will hope in God and praise Him for the help of His countenance!”
May the Lord give us grace daily for a walk filled with hope!
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Sun29-Mar-202611th of Nisan, 5786
Ex 33:12-16Isa 34-35Pr 25Ac 24(Rev 18)
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