Friday, April 17, 2020
When They Attack …
Psalms 71:3
Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
2 Timothy 4:18
The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Words of Grace For Today
You, O Lord, are our rock and salvation!
Whatever enemy attacks us, a minute virus, a devilish temptation beyond our resisting, or a deceitful person bent on destroying us by whatever means, God is our refuge. God is a fortress that protects us.
We may be infected, become ill, every ill, suffer and even die.
We may not be able to resist a temptation that rebounds on us, ruining everything about our lives, leaving us with nothing, living on the street, bereft of family, friends and hope.
We may be attacked by a person we trusted with our life, who betrays us, who spreads rumours about us in the church and our community, who lies before the Courts, who stops at nothing to run us out of this life. And the church, the community, and the Courts may not only receive the lies as if truth, but create more lies of their own in order to condemn us and bring us within a thin thread of disappearing into a grave. And the accumulated gaslighting and it’s profound costs may indeed bring us to an early grave.
Still God is our refuge, our rock and salvation. God saves us for God’s own kingdom. Timothy wrote ‘heavenly’ kingdom, but the heavenly and earthly kingdom of God is not two separate things. It is all the same.
Even today, God is with us, and the Kingdom of God is at hand!
For this Kingdom, God saves us, even if our devilish enemies steal everything from us, even the breath that we use to sing God’s praise.
For even in death, God’s glory is made known in the lives of all us God-made saints still sinners.
While we still have breath, let us not waste any opportunity we have to live as ‘little Christs’ for each other, for those in need, for the strangers we meet, and especially for our enemies.
We can live courageously, for God is our rock, our refuge, and our salvation! Nothing can separate us from the love of God that gives us life in Christ.