Take up the Shield of Faith

We are living in turbulent times! There are all kinds of problems, challenges, dangers, disasters etc. that are constantly happening. How do we live a victorious life in the midst of such circumstances? By faith in Christ. By faith in His finished work on the cross. By faith in the love of God and His providence for us. By faith in the Words of Christ. By faith in who we are now in Him. By faith in all His precious promises!

When we have faith in Him, that faith becomes a shield all around us.

Ep 6:16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

How can we constantly have that shield around us?

1. Give thanks in everything;
One of the most practical, simple and important way is to give Him thanks always. No matter where you are and what time it is, offer up thanksgiving to the Lord.
1 Thess 5:16-18 says
16 Rejoice always,
17 pray without ceasing,
18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
It is easy to give thanks when everything goes well with you.
It is really faith in action when things seemingly goes wrong and you give thanks.
If you are in an unexpected "sticky" situation not because of anything you have done; give thanks that the Lord is with you and then pray that His will be done!
Declare that all things will work together for His glory and your good.

Beware that you do not succumb to the enemy's plan to make you say negative things like; "die, what am I going to do, I hate my life, my life is always full of troubles, or blame someone etc."

2. Pray without ceasing
To pray is to bring everything and anything to the Lord. It is to turn our hearts and eyes to the Lord. And you can do that all the time. He is always with us! He will never leave us nor forsake us. So we can always talk to Him. Everytime you talk to Him in faith you have the shield of faith on.

3. Rejoice always
The joy of the Lord isour strength!
Rejoicing in Him always is having constant faith.
How can you rejoice if you are worried, anxious or fearful?
Beware of fear. It is destructive. It breaks your shield of protection.
Beware of anxieties and worries. It is another form of fear and have the same destructive effects.
Resist fear and it will flee from you.
Resist anxieties and worries in the same way.
Look to the Lord and thank Him.
Focus on Him with faith and surely His presence, peace and power will be with you!

2011 DEEP STRONG UNSHAKEABLE

2011 will be a year of greater shakings. The past decade of 2001 to 2010 has been turbulent in every aspects. And the coming decade would likely be so, only in a greater degree. In the midst of such shakings what are we to do?
As I was pondering and praying as to what the Lord wants us to focus on in 2011 I was brought to the passage in Luke 6:46-49.
The WORDS from this passage that spoke right into my heart was in verse 48.
"He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock."

I want to be that man whose house could not be shaken by the storms of life. No one can avoid the storms of life. But how can we stand in the midst of the storms.

The whole passage where the verse above is found tells us what we are to do. Lets look at the passage together.

46 "But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?
47 Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like:
48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.
49 But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great."

To build a house that can stand through the storms we need to do the 3 things!

1. Come to JESUS THE LORD! Jesus is the ONE SURE ETERNAL FOUNDATION upon which we should build our lives. Come to HIM as the LORD of your life; as the LORD of all areas of your lives. Don't just give HIM lip service. Don't call HIM LORD and then not obey Him. He is not LORD to you if you do not listen to HIM and obey HIM. It is wonderful that we can come to Jesus. He is LORD. He is the source of all LIFE, wisdom, love, truth, righteousness, salvation, power, blessings and everything that pertains to life and godliness. We can go to HIM because He has first come to us. He came from heaven to us here on earth to bring us peace, love and good will! Therefore let us come to HIM, to His throne of grace and obtain mercy and find grace to help!

2. Hear His sayings. His Words are life and spirit. His words are truth and wisdom. His words are full of love and power; full of grace and glory. He alone has the words of eternal life! Take heed how you hear and do not neglect such great a salvation! Read His Word. Meditate on it. Seek understanding of it. Study it. Memorise it. Speak of it. Pray them back to the Lord. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly (Col 3:16) and then you know what? When you roam (when you go to work, go to school, etc) they will lead you. When you sleep (when you rest and when you are not aware of things around us) they will keep you. When you wake they will speak with you (counsel you and instruct you) Pro 6:22.

3. Do them! Just obey His Words and you'll be saved, you'll be helped, you'll be delivered from your crisis, you'll be protected from dangers, you'll be provided for and you'll be blessed. Trust that He knows what's best. He does. He is the creator of all things and He reigns over all!. Everytime we obey His word our roots go deep into Christ the Rock bed. It will not be easy sometimes. The enemy seeks to tempt us to disobey. He also seeks to drive us away from obeying His word. But when we obey despite persecution GREAT IS OUR REWARD as He has promised (Matt 5:12). The blessing is in doing the Word (James 1:25). This obedience is not a once in a while thing. It is when we consistently obey day by day that we build solidly and we build to last.

In these stormy days seek to do the 3 things above and we will be assured that we will find peace, providence, protection and even prosperity in the midst of crsis! Our highest goal however is to build our lives upon HIM and HIS WORD and because JESUS AND HIS WORD ENDURES FOREVER we too shall endure forever with HIM! Even if I am not blessed the way I think I should be blessed I will still choose to obey HIM because HE ALONE IS LORD AND HE ALONE IS WORTHY OF MY WORSHIP, MY OBEDIENCE AND SUBMISSION AND TRUST!