Three Certainties

They will fight against you. They will not overcome you I
am with you to deliver you (Jer 1:19). There are three things
that are absolutely certain for the disciples of the Lord, as we
see in the above verse. (1) Satan and his agents will fight
against us. (2) They will not overcome us. (3) The Lord will
always be with us to deliver us.

The certainty of Opposition

As long as we are in the world, we will have to face tribulation,
persecution and trials. It will never be otherwise. So we need
not expect an easy time either in our work-place or in our
personal life in the coming days. Days of financial
difficulties will come. So even now, we must learn to live
simply. Those who live in luxury will find things difficult in the
future. We must be wise in saving some money for the future
so that we don’t have to depend on others. But we must never
depend on our savings. Our trust must be in the Lord alone.
God is a jealous God and He will never allow us to trust in
created things. God is going to shake the world’s financial
systems very soon, so that all those who trust in created
things will be thoroughly shaken. In the coming days, we will
also see brothers betraying their brothers, because all will
seek their own safety. We have already seen something of
that. But we will see more of it in the future. Our own family
members will become our enemies and hate us. Some of us
have already seen a little of that. We will see more of it in the
future. There will also be active persecution of believers in
offices and elsewhere. This will purify us and make us better
Christians. Many believers are hoping that one of these days
all their trails will all be over. But that day will come only when
Jesus returns, not before.

The certainty of Satan’s defeat

It is impossible for Satan or any of his demons or human
agents to defeat us spiritually. 1 Peter 3:13 says that no-one
can harm us if we always seek to do good. So let us
determine, by God’s grace, to do good to one and all. Let us
love those who hate us, bless those who curse us and pray for
the forgiveness of those who persecute us. Then no-one will
be able to harm us. Satan and his agents may cheat us.,
trouble us, harass us, rob us, injure us, imprison us and even
kill our bodies. But they will not be able to harm us spiritually.
God is , and always will be on the throne. Jesus has all
authority in heaven and on earth. And Satan has been
defeated once-for-all on Calvary’s cross. Satan does not have
to be defeated once again by us. We only have to believe in
our hearts and confess with our mouths that Satan has been
defeated on the cross and that he has no power over us any
more. Satan cannot discourage us or depress us or frighten
us with anything, as long as we hold fast to this confession.
We can overcome Satan by the word of our testimony against
him (Rev 12:11)

The certainty of the Lord being with us.

The Lord will never leave us nor forsake us. He won’t leave us
even when we slip up and fall. He only wants us to be honest
with Him about our failures. The Lord is near to the broken-
hearted. The promise in Psalm 37:23(LB) is that even when
we fall, our fall won’t be fatal, because the Lord will hold us
with His Hand. He will not only make the evil that others do
to us to work for our good., He will also make our own failures
to work together for our good. He will make all things work
together for our very best. The Lord will deliver us from every
evil and bring us through triumphantly. He will keep us from
falling and present us perfect to the Father one day. Our
confidence is in His ability to keep us until the end and not in
our own ability to endure until the end. So we look to the
future with great boldness and confidence. Let us run the race
looking away from everything else, unto Jesus(Heb 12:2). May
we never keep looking at either our present weaknesses or
our past failures. True humility is to acknowledge that nothing
good dwells in us (Romans 7:18). If nothing good dwells
inside us, then why do we look inside ourselves at all? Let us
also stop looking at our past failures. That will only
discourage us. We must make a firm decision now, to forget
the past and press on to the future. Let us look at Jesus
alone. He will make us an overcomer, no matter how weak we
are today and no matter how much we have failed in the past.
Hallelujah!. Amen

ZP