12 Thessalonians 3:3 “But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.”
Psalm 121:7 “The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.”
John 17:15 “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.”
2 Timothy 4:18 “And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!”
The promise of the Father is not that no evil will ever come our way, but that He will establish, guard, preserve, keep and deliver us through such attempts of the evil one. Too many times we assume that to have God’s protection is to be shielded from any interruption of life by evil. That is not the promise. In fact, the Scripture states plainly: “that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). As children of God, our promise is that our Father will preserve us through all di◊culty.
There have been moments in every believer’s life when we were “mi◊ed” at God for letting some worldly trouble come our way. We could look at people of the world and see their trouble, but for God to let trouble come our way - “Well, really, this shouldn’t be happening to me.” That is not God’s promise, and with good reason. It is only when we go through the same things as our lost friends, and do so with the joyful knowledge that God has and will preserve us, that our lost friends begin to see the benefits of a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, many times Christian men and women do their best to avoid any real confl ict or head on confrontation with worldly evil. They assume God will come down and defeat the enemy withoutrequiring from them any willingness to be a warrior for truth. We Christians have often removed ourselves from the battle waging in our nation, and as a result, we fi nd that anti-God attitudes have consumed our government and its politics. This anti-God doctrine has become so persuasive that parts of the Christian community have believed the devil’s lie that God must be removed from our American government, that God was never intended to be a part of our American government.
This is absolutely a lie. I address all of this in America’s Need at Blogging With James. At this date there are seven parts to the America’s Need series (go to http://bloggingwithjames.jamesduncan-writer.net.
It is time for Christian men and women in America to recognize that we are to be warriors for truth, and then walk, with the knowledge that God can and will preserve us, straight toward the conflict. When those who recognize their need for saving grace observe our willingness to fi ght against the evil within our nation, and to su◊er because of it, they may open their hearts to God’s cleansing grace and become our brother or sister. The Apostle Paul learned that he was to suffer for Christ’s name, and thousands came to Christ through his su◊ering.
When we learn and live by this truth we can then truly be “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 5:20 )◊◊◊
Editor’s note: Jim Duncan is the pastor of Mountain Bible Church, Mountain, Mo. He may be contacted at P.O. Box 146, Pea Ridge, AR 72751; or by telephone at 417-341-8504; by e-mail at james.ahscrolls@wildblue.
net. His Web site is www.jamesduncan-writer.net.
Church, Pages 2 on 11/20/2013