Daily Bible Study for Monday September
26, 2016
By: Hanny Lynn Stearns
Fish N
Loaves Ministries, Inc.
“Multiplying
God’s Word Around The Globe”
Chapter Reading
for Today: Please read in
your Bible before proceeding. Note that most translations are considered
paraphrases. The Young’s Literal Translation provides a more accurate
translation since he is the one who authored a concordance. Others are helpful
for seeing a different perspective, but we cannot always depend on their
wording. I hope this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version,
that is fine. I am studying from the KJV, but for the purpose of this study, I
will keep it with the New King James Version.
One final note: I will put the scripture in italics to differentiate from my
own writing. I am adding red to the letters when
it is Jesus talking – just like the Bible. Thank you.
Bible
Gateway Verse of the Day
Hebrews 10:30-31
For we know Him who said,
“Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God.
Psalm
100:4
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
and into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless
His name.
Song: Greater By: Mercy Me
Psalm 64
God Our Defense Attorney
David prays aloud to God to
keep him from fear as the oppression of the enemy bears down on him. Let’s pray…
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for helping Your
people when the wicked comes to oppress us. Father, we need to remember Your
words and Your ways at all times. You said You would take vengeance against the
schemes of the enemy. Jesus has already won the victory over sin, death and the
devil and we rejoice in this! Father, I ask You to cause Your word to go out
today unhindered and unchecked by any outside force of my flesh. I am asking
that You would give me the utterance and the anointing to preach Your word as I
ought, with boldness and accuracy. Father, thank You for bringing in people
from all over the world to receive Your word through Fish N Loaves Ministries,
Inc. I am asking that You continue to bring them Lord from every direction to
draw close to You – the One True God! Thank You for always watching over Your
word to perform it in our lives when we place our trust in You. We are making
it our purpose and desire Lord to be doers of Your word – grown up, not as babies
tossed to and fro, but walking as mature and wise sons of the Most High. Lord,
renew our minds in Your word today causing us to have a definite change in how
we live and move and have our being. Thank You in advance for the answers to
this prayer. We believe we have already received them in Jesus mighty name.
Amen.
This man of God was asking the
Lord to hide him from the fear of the enemy. How many of us know that we should
never, ever fear the enemy – never? It’s true. Fear is something we must
resist. It will come but we must cast it down immediately. Look at what the
Lord says, among hundreds of other scriptures that tell us not to fear…
Psalm 23:4
Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for
You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they
comfort me.
The Lord will comfort His people
– even like a mother, only better!
Isaiah 66:13
As one whom his
mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you shall be
comforted in Jerusalem.”
As we start into this Psalm we
have to get this one thing straight – we must never fear of the enemy – amen! He
wants to get us in fear, but we must resist it. The enemy, working through evil
people who do not love God or walk with Him will do a lot of kicking and
screaming to try to threaten us. Remember, we are not in a battle with people.
It is the devil who is fighting against us, and he is working hard through
ungodly people to do it. And even if this surprises you, he can work through Christians
who are walking more according to the flesh than the spirit. Yes, even
Christians can hurl some evil things our way. We have to always understand who
is at the bottom of it.
In this chapter, David was
talking about the bitter words, or arrows being shot at him. How many of us can
relate to this? I imagine it would be every one of us. People can “bully”
others and press hard on their feelings to hurt them and try to bring them
down. Words can be very painful. For the mature Christian, we must be so
careful of what we say. Our words should always be encouraging and uplifting to
others. They should have a good purpose. But the enemy will stop at nothing to
hurl insults at God’s people. He knows how those words can hurt the human
spirit. And then he comes back around later to try to remind us of wicked words
that have been spoken to us again and again like a tape recorder. He will
rewind it and replay it for us over and over – if we allow it - and we shouldn’t.
The enemy wants to distract us from God in any
way he can. He makes wicked plans and sets them as a trap for those who really
love the Lord and are trying to walk in His way. He comes at the most “opportune”
time to try to slip into our lives to steal, kill and destroy. The enemy is so
stupid that he thinks he can get away with his wicked plots toward people. He
really does. He has been around for thousands and thousands of years and yet he
keeps planning wicked plots to destroy – as if no one were watching and he
would never get his “pay back.” That is so dumb! He has seen God step in and
thwart his plans on many occasion, yet he keeps right on swinging. If only
Christians had as much “tenacity” as the devil when it comes to determination.
Only for us it should be a righteous determination to avoid the schemes of the
enemy through watchfulness and prayer…
Matthew 26:41
Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit
indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
To watch and pray is to be wise and keep
oneself ahead of what the wicked are trying to do to us. The enemy will work
even through godly people, and that is all the more “tricky” to unsuspecting people.
When someone says they are a Christian, immediately everyone thinks they are
already perfect so they would never do anything to hurt someone. Then, when
they mess up, people act shocked as if it could never be so with a born again
believer.
We are all in the process of being perfected but I have yet to meet
anyone who is “there” yet. LOL! We have Christians who are maturing at
different levels. Some stay babies in the faith their entire lives. Many
continue to walk in the flesh all their life rather than really submitting themselves
to the lordship of Jesus, leaving them as vulnerable prey for the enemy. They
are like a puppet on his string.
Additionally, if we get too busy in our
lives to pay attention to what is going on around us, we are a “moving target.”
If we miss our time in prayer with the Lord, we miss getting all the blessings
and power that can come from that time. We miss the wisdom the Lord wanted to
share with us. We become susceptible to attack. Watching and praying is key for
the Christian. Nothing can take the place of spending time with Jesus. If we
are too busy to do that, then something else needs to be removed from our
schedules! Ask me how I know.
While the enemy is busy scheming and
thinking he is getting away with it, God is always watching. Isn’t it great how
this Psalm gets to the point, and quickly at that? By the time we get to verse
7, it says that “God shall shoot at them
with an arrow.” There are several verses in the Bible that tell us all
about who is the one to take vengeance on our enemies…
Hebrews 10:30-31
For we know Him who said, “Vengeance
is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” 31 It
is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
God is the one to do this – not us. We can
depend on Him to do what He says He will do. I have seen Him do it for me time
and again – both in my family and in my work place. I didn’t have to do a
thing. I just asked for His help and stepped back to watch Him work. He can
trip up the enemy in their own words and plans. They say things in evil intent,
and it ends up bouncing right back them like a boomerang. They will stumble on
their own words…
Proverbs 6:2
You are snared by the words of your mouth; you are
taken by the words of your mouth.
Proverbs 29:6
By transgression an evil man
is snared, but the righteous sings and rejoices.
Stop for a moment and picture
verse 8 in your mind. You have a bunch of bullies standing around making fun of
a kid on the playground. They hurl insults and names at the poor kid until he
feels like he has been shot through the heart a hundred times. But all of a sudden,
a kind hearted, but very big kid (gentle giant) shows up on the scene to ask
them what they are up to. They take one look at him and they scatter like a
group of frightened birds. Now we can think about how God is. He loves the
downcast and takes vengeance for those He loves. When He shows up on the scene –
everything changes.
God can work through
circumstances and people to get this vengeance across to the enemies’ attacks –
make no mistake. I saw Him do this in my work place when I had several people
taunting me. Suddenly, they were gone. He took them out of my atmosphere, one
by one. It was an amazing thing to see. I was rejoicing where once I had been
crying. It can happen a lot like that playground scene even though we are grown-ups
– it’s so SADD-U-CEE!
The Lord tells us to let Him
be the One to take vengeance because He is the only righteous Judge. He knows
all the details involved in the situation and He knows the best way to handle
it. We do not. It only makes sense then that we should do what He says and
leave the “problem people” up to Him. When people see God move they can do
nothing else but marvel at what they see! He is awesome and He does great big
awesome things. All people see it and they stand amazed. They will (wisely)
consider what He has done. If anybody has any sense in their head, when they
see a move of God in a situation, they would do well to get things in their own
lives turned around, and quick. It happens for some, but others are foolish
enough to think that they can continue to get away with their wicked schemes.
People who are the righteous
and trust in the Lord (really) are glad (that’s you and me, right saints?) –
amen?! We see God move on our behalf and we praise Him. We rejoice in God our
Savior. He always defends those with a right heart and right motives. He never
lets the righteous be moved…
Psalm 55:2
Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit
the righteous to be moved.
It is really placing our trust in Him that will carry us through
terrible times of attack. The enemy will always try, but we never have to allow
him to succeed. We have the greater one living in us…
1 John 4:4
You are of God, little
children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he
who is in the world.
People who are open for the enemy to use as weapons against others are
going to find out just what the Hebrews 10 verse says – that it is truly a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Lord! Take heart God’s children.
Our God is with us and He is for us…
Romans 8:31-33
31 What then shall we say to
these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely
give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge
against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Psalm 46:11
The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
The Lord truly is our defense attorney! Nobody can help us in the
courtroom like our God – hallelujah! On a final note, we must also remember
that since Jesus finished His work of redemption for us, we have authority over
the enemy. We can bind him up in our daily affairs and strip him of having any
power in our lives. If we walk in obedience to the Lord and take our God given,
Jesus bought authority over our enemies, we will live a much better life…
Luke 10:19
Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions,
and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
We do not have to sit back and
take the devil’s attacks – we do have authority over him. Now we need to use
it. Praise God!
Questions:
In what way was David being attacked by the enemy?
What does this chapter say the Lord will do to those who
devise wicked schemes?
What have you learned from this chapter as it applies to your
life?
How will this chapter study change your thinking?
What will you do differently?
Who can you share this study with?
There are three main points to
consider from today’s study…
People attack because the enemy is
working in them to do it
When we leave the vengeance up to
God – He will handle the situation the right way
When we trust in the Lord we will be
filled with praise to the Lord
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for taking care of those who come against me.
Lord, I know that people are prey to the enemy and only You know the entire
situation. Help me whenever I am attacked with evil to take it to You and stand
back to watch You bring about the justice in the situation. Thank You for all
You are and all You do for me. I rejoice in You as I place my full confidence
in Your loving help. In Jesus name. Amen.
When
someone attacks you, are you leaving the consequences up to the Lord?
And God Said… You fill in the blanks.
Luke 18:7
And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out
day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?
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