The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Warrior's Prayer, #23

They prevented [confronted] me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay (verse eighteen).

The warrior learns this truth sooner or later. Our enemy waits until the day of our calamity and then he jumps on us.

We go along for a while in our Christian life. Little by little our consecration is eroded. We grow careless in prayer, in reading the Scriptures, in assembling with the saints. Little sins and deceptions begin to grow in our personality but we do not notice them. We "feel" as though God is with us and pleased with our personality and behavior. There seems to be no evidence that He is displeased with us. Yet, we are not presenting our body a living sacrifice. We are forgetting that God expects us to obey the Word whether or not we are being given Divine signs and directions that we should do so.

The enemy notices that our spiritual life is weakening and he bides his time. He carefully and with stealth and cunning prepares the snare.

Suddenly he springs it. The day of our calamity is here.

This is Satan's hour. He leaps on us. Now we have to fight for our very life. We attempt to shake ourselves as did Samson. But our strength is gone. The many hours of receiving the world into our personality through television and other sources, the neglect of prayer, the neglect of studying God's Word, the neglect of meeting with fervent believers, have left us weak and helpless. The waters of the world are in us and we are sinking.

If in this critical time we call on the Lord, He will help us. But we may suffer much at the hands of the enemy. We had been lulled into believing our environment was secure. If our spiritual eyes had been opened we would have seen that terrific forces had been raging all around us and it was only the hand of God that kept us from being swept away.

After one such experience we learn to walk diligently before the Lord at all times. We handle the world very lightly and keep our soul strong by continual prayer, meditating in God's Word and fellowshiping with fervent believers. It is not enough to attend a large church, even though it is Christian, where no demands are made on us. We must continually fellowship with fervent disciples of the Lord (if it is possible). We must exhort one another each day if we would avoid being caught in one of Satan's snares.

To be continued.