Devotions

God has promised us, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).

The phrase “very present” means “always here, always available, with unlimited access.” In short, the abiding presence of the Lord is always in us. And if he’s ever present in us, then he wants continual conversation with us. He wants us to talk with him no matter where we are: on the job, with family, with friends, even with non-believers.

You may ask, “So how does God bring us help in our troubles?” His help comes in the gift of his Holy Spirit, who dwells in us and works the Father’s will in our lives. Paul tells us again and again that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. We are the Lord’s dwelling place on earth.

Of course, we repeat this truth often, in our worship and testimonies. Yet, many of us still don’t take it seriously. We simply don’t understand the power that resides in this truth. If we did grasp it and trust in it, we would never again be afraid or dismayed.

I certainly haven’t laid hold of this lesson fully. Even after all my years as a minister, I’m still tempted to think I have to work up some emotion in order to hear from God. No, the Lord is saying: “You don’t have to spend hours waiting for me. I abide in you. I am present for you, night and day.”

Listen to David’s testimony: “I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved” (Psalm 16:7-8). David is essentially declaring, “God is always present before me. And I’m determined to keep him in my thoughts. He faithfully guides me day and night. I don’t ever have to be confused.”

The Bible tells us that the Lord is no respecter of persons. And because he doesn’t show favoritism—because his promises never change from generation to generation—we can ask him to show us the same mercies he has shown his people through history. Even King Manasseh who sinned worse than any king before him yet when he repented, was restored (see 2 Chronicles 33:1-20).

So, dear saint, when you fear you may have sinned too often against the Lord’s mercy…when you think you’ve crossed a line, and God has given up on you…when you’re discouraged, cast down by failure or by unChrist-like behavior…when you wonder if God is putting you on a shelf, or withholding his love from you because of past sins—if you truly have a repentant heart, then lay hold of this truth: GOD CHANGES NOT.

Bind God to his Word. Write down every remembrance you have of what he has done for you in past years. Then go to Scripture and find other instances of his “mercy precedents” with his people. Bring these lists before the Lord and remind him: “God, you cannot deny your own Word. You are the same yesterday, today and forever.”

Today we have something that the Old Testament saints could only dream of. And that is God’s own Son seated at the right hand of the Father-Judge. We know the Son, because he is our blood-covenant brother, by adoption. And we are able to claim our blood-tie to him whenever we stand before the Judge and bind him to his own arguments: “Father, I have nothing to bring you but your own Word. You promised that I would be complete in Christ, that you would keep me from falling, and Jesus would be my intercessor. You promised you would open your ears to my petition and supply all my needs. Oh, Lord, have mercy and grace on me now, in my hour of need. Amen!”

I truly believe that God is wonderfully blessed when we approach his throne with this kind of boldness, binding him to his own Word. It’s as if he says to us, “Finally, you got it. You bless me!”

The early church found itself in very similar circumstances that we find ourselves in today. They were living under the authoritarian rule of Rome with its most ungodly, pagan culture. Violence was publicly glorified. They were faced with sexual immorality that surpassed even the vile degradations that we see in our own culture today.

In our own culture in the last twenty years, it has been horrifying to see perversion after perversion not only propagated but also accepted as the norm. In the future, we may be marked for having a church membership or even attending church. In the future, it may cost us to be a Christian. What will we do then?

If you were to read Romans chapters one, two and three, you would be reading the newspapers of today. We don’t need to get anxious, though, or fearful or throw our hands up in despair. We must remember that in the middle of a perverse culture and a suffering church, Jesus is not overwhelmed. He is not finished, and he still has work he is doing. He will raise up a prevailing church to witness about his glory. He will fill his followers with the Spirit, power and boldness to speak out.

Those who have a hunger to see God move, those who see what is happening out in the world and weep, to them God will give a holy cry. He will put a holy prayer in their hearts. God will give them an anointing to minister to his saints and to a dying world.

We told that we have a shield of faith that we’re to use. “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16, ESV). This verse raises a question, though.

The Bible also says that God is our shield. Genesis 15:1 says, “The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’” David writes about this in his psalms, “O my strength, I watch for You—for God is my strong tower. My God in His lovingkindness will go before me. God will let me look down on my foes. Do not slay them, lest my people forget. With Your power shake them and bring them down, O Lord our shield” (Psalm 59:10-12).

So is God my shield, or do I have my own shield of faith? Which is it?

First, we have to understand what faith is. Most people think faith is when we mentally agree with something we read like, “I believe today is Sunday. I mentally affirm some facts like two plus two is four.”

Faith is much more based in the spirit and heart. Scripture says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9, emphasis added). Don’t get me wrong; you have to believe with your head too, but the Bible says that salvation comes when we believe with our hearts.

God tells his people through the prophet Isaiah, “Give me your heart. With your mouth, you honor me, but your heart is far from me” (see Isaiah 29:13-19).

The answer is found in David’s prayers and songs. “I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you…. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:2,7-8,11).

^{Jim Cymbala began the Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson.}

“Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2).

What disturbed the Thessalonians was they thought Christ had already come, and that they’d missed it. Paul reassures them in the next verse, “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition” (2:3).

So, what was Paul’s primary theology about Christ’s return? We find it in two passages:

“Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand” (Romans 13:11-12).

“Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand” (Philippians 4:5).

Paul is crying, “Wake up! It’s past midnight already. The Lord’s coming is drawing near, so stir yourself. Don’t be slothful. Jesus is coming for those who expect him.”

Skeptics may ask, “But what about Paul’s own words? He did say two things had to happen before Christ returns. First, the Lord can’t come until a great apostasy takes place. And second, the Antichrist has to rise up and proclaim himself God. We have to see the Antichrist sitting in the temple, demanding that people worship him, before Jesus will come.”

First of all, you have to be willfully blind not to see a raging apostasy gripping the whole world. Unbelief is seeping through nations, with believers falling away from faith on all sides. The apostasy Paul refers to has clearly arrived.

Secondly, according to John, the Antichrist is anyone who denies the Father and the Son. Moreover, he says, the increase of such Antichrists is proof we are living in the very last days. In short, nothing is holding back Christ’s return!