Pray… Listen to my cry, O Lord, for I come before You with a just cause, springing forth from the integrity of a heart You have made righteous. My judgment is in Your hands because I know You look upon me with mercy and equity. You have tried my heart and visited me by night. I pray You would find no deceit in me, and that neither my words, thoughts, nor actions would betray the presence of Your Spirit in me. By Your Word and indwelling power, help me to fight the good fight. Keep me from the ways of the godless and shun the deeds of evil men. May I labor diligently to keep my feet fast to Your paths, holding guard over my soul lest I slip. I call upon You in faith, O God, believing You will answer me because You have rescued me from the domain of darkness and transferred me into the kingdom of Your beloved Son! You guard those who take refuge there from the evil that rises up against them. You hear their prayers and reveal Your mercies to them. Keep me as the apple of Your eye, hide me in the shadow of Your wings, and bring me to maturity in the fullness of Your Spirit. Protect me from the wicked one who tempts me and surrounds me with lies. His unfeeling heart is closed and he boasts proudly with his words. “Has God said?” is his taunt as he tries to lure me from Your good way. He schemes night and day to bring me down from my high calling in Christ Jesus, Your beloved Son. He prowls about like a Lion, eager to tear and devour.
Arise, O Lord! Confront and defeat him! Deliver my soul from Satan’s grasp through Your power alive in my inner being. By Your strength deliver me from the worldly who hope only in this life, and whose storehouses overflow with earthly gain. They desire only wealth and power. But as for me, let me be satisfied as I behold Your face in righteousness, content as I awaken each day in Your presence.
Consider… Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the Day of Judgment. Satan and his earthly cohorts pro-actively conspire to defeat God’s saints, and are ever vigilant in their mission. When the enemy bores in like an enraged bull with unfeeling heart and surrounds us with temptations designed to demoralize and deceive us, what we practice becomes the conduit that carries prayer to a listening God. When He tries our hearts and finds Christ in us regardless of earthly circumstance, He hears our prayers and comes running to our defense! While we can never be righteous through the practice of spiritual disciplines alone, saints determined to apply God’s heavenly gifts to earthly life become the apples of Jesus’ eye. He calls “friend” all who do what He commands. They are satisfied in the fullness of His Spirit— holy temples built upon the solid rock of understanding and action. When the rains of evil descend, the winds of temptation blow, and the floods of defeat crash against them they are like rocks able to stand.
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