Today Satan is attempting to get the church off its message of the centrality of Jesus Christ. Satan desires nothing more than to turn God’s people off their message and one way he does this is by riling up Christians over a political issue until it consumes them. When this happens, the issue soon becomes all one can talk about and Jesus is no longer the consuming concern.
Paul expressed concern for the church of Jesus Christ when he prayed, “May God reveal to you not just the past greatness of Christ but his present greatness.” Here is his specific prayer: “That you may know what is the hope of His calling … what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power” (Ephesians 1:18-19).
Satan cannot shake or test the faith of any child of God without the Lord’s permission. Simply put, God has a purpose and plan behind every trial that Satan brings to our lives. Jesus gave a warning to the apostle Peter: “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31).
The Word makes it clear that Satan’s main objective is to destroy the faith of those who serve Jesus. But many believers find it astonishing that the Lord granted Satan access to Peter in order to test him.
Our society is desperate to find hope and peace in these troubled days. They long to know the truth of Isaiah 26:3: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” They will be watching God’s children to see a testimony of his provision and care for his own.
Nothing stirs the heart of our God more than the soul that is overcome with grief. Grief is defined as “deep sorrow” or “sadness caused by extreme distress.” Isaiah tells us the Lord himself is acquainted with this most wrenching emotion: “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3).
If you ever truly loved and followed Jesus but now are cold and indifferent, the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, inviting you to come back to the merciful arms of Christ. Please listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says” (see Revelation 2:7).
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6).
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:28-31).
In Psalm 27, David beseeches God in an intense urgent prayer. He pleads in verse 7, “Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.” His prayer is focused on one desire, one ambition, something that has become all consuming for him: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after” (27:4).
David is testifying, “I have one prayer, Lord, one request. It is my single most important goal in life, my constant prayer, the one thing I desire. And I will seek after it with all that’s within me. This one thing consumes me as my goal.”
In ancient Israel, the ark of the covenant represented the mercy of the Lord, a powerful truth that came to be embodied in Christ. We are to receive his mercy, trust in the saving blood of his mercy, and be saved eternally. So, you can ridicule the law, you can mock holiness, you can tear down everything that speaks of God. But when you mock or ridicule God’s mercy, judgment comes—and swiftly. If you trample on his blood of mercy, you face his awful wrath.