Monday, August 24, 2009

Mid-Day Devotion 8/24/09

Crown of Thorns Nebula


6 O LORD, I say to you, "You are my God."
Hear, O LORD, my cry for mercy.
7 O Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer,
who shields my head in the day of battle-
8 do not grant the wicked their desires, O LORD;
do not let their plans succeed,
or they will become proud.
Selah
Psalm 140:6-8


Our ever-present help, our ever-present help in our hour of need, the Lord is there beside us. He is our strength and our salvation, He is the mighty shield that covers us in battle, and there He protects us, He protects us from the devices of the wicked so that they may not elevate themselves, exalt themselves at the expense of the good, at the expense of the righteous. He is there to show each and every one of us that there is a present God, an ever-vigilant God who contends with the cause of His children, who struggles there beside them, who works throughout their lives, and in their lives according to that great love He has for each and every one of us. A God of compassion and a God of mercy, a God of righteousness, a God of tender precepts, He walks beside us, guiding us like sheep to green pastures, to the place of peace and comfort where our souls do dwell in His love forever.

So there, there we are told to raise up our voices, to call out to the Lord in humble supplication, to pray to Him, to kneel down, to worship and to glorify His holy and righteous Name, knowing that our voices when they are lifted to the Lord shall reach His ear. And there, there is nothing that He will not do, nothing that He cannot do for the cause of His children and the great love that He has for them.

Throughout the world we see the desires of the wicked, we see the wicked devices, we see chaos and struggle and anguish and pain and suffering in this world. We see it with the political prisoners who are taken, who are taken in the middle of the night, who are ripped from their homes, from their families, from their loved ones, those they care so deeply for, and cast into prisons or sent off to work camps. We see it in the sorrow of the slaves who are held at the end of a taskmaster’s whip, those who are viewed as less than human, those who are viewed with contemptuous eyes, who would seek to subjugate them, who would seek to hold them at their mercy, and would force them to break their will. We see it in the sex slaves who are ripped from their homes, from their families, their loved ones, whose bodies are used and worn, their innocence ripped from them, their naiveté cast to the winds. We see it in their eyes, the hurt and the anguish, knowing their plight and their sorrow. We see it in the prisoners and the hostages, ransomed off to the highest bidder, bartered away as if they were nothing but cattle or livestock sent away to be slaughtered.

And yet we know, we know that even as the world seems to stack up against them, even as wicked and evil men work their vile, vile ways throughout the events of human passing, do all they have done and all that they can, the Lord is still there, the Lord is still present, He is still the strength of our salvation, He is still there to cover our heads in the day of battle. So much so is He the strength of our salvation, so much so does He protect and guide us that He sent His only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, the great propitiation for our sins, to ransom us, to set the Devil to flight, to rescue us from that dark power that sin, death and the Devil have over us, that we are no longer in bondage, no longer in slavery to the power of the dark, evil Adversary. And if God can conquer the power of sin, death and the Devil, these great transcending forces in the universe that we cannot even begin to explain, that we cannot even begin to understand, that have such a dark hold over us, then how much more can He do for us and for our struggle? For the plight and the struggles of the captives and the hostages, the prisoners and the slaves who are there held in such dark bondage? How much more can the Lord God Almighty do for them against the forces of this world and the desires of wicked, evil men? For He is a God of strength, He is a God of might, and He is a God of power who shines His love and His truth and His light upon this world, and who protects and guides His children each and every step of the way, He is a God who never fails them or forsakes them, who never abandons them but is there with them, always drawing them nearer to the power of His Holy Spirit, to His loving bosom.

So raise your voice, raise your voice in humble supplication that the will of the Lord be done on Earth as it is in Heaven, have faith, knowing that the hope of the Lord is the hope of all mankind and that He shall rescue, that He shall free according to His mercy and His precepts, according to His grand design, come what may, come what must, throughout the forces of this world. Have faith and hope in the Lord, knowing that He is the strength of our salvation and that He is a shield in battle. Hear our prayers, dear Lord, hear the cries of your children, for we know that You are the force of good that is in this world.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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