...for
wisdom will come into your heart
Proverbs 2:6-15
For the LORD gives wisdom;
from His mouth come knowledge and
understanding;
He stores up sound wisdom for the
upright;
He is a shield to those who walk in
integrity,
guarding the paths of justice and
watching over the way of His saints.
Then you will understand
righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;
for wisdom will come into your
heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to
your soul;
discretion will watch over you,
understanding will guard you,
delivering you from the way of evil,
from men of perverted speech,
who forsake the paths of
uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,
who rejoice in doing evil and
delight in the perverseness of evil,
men whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.
Since the beginning, man has found
ways to obscure truth to elicit approval for his evil deeds, starting with Adam
and Eve. People lie. That is truth. So how are we to make our way in a world rife
with evil, deception, greed, hostility and violence? We can start by coming back to basics: The physical world is ruled by Satan, (Ephesians
2:1-3, 1John 5:19, Luke 4:6) with inspired minions following his orders in lock-step,
eagerly lining up behind various celebrities, hashtags, politicians and the
like to do his bidding. Satan has been around a long…long time, learning our
hot-buttons, weaknesses, needs. So it
may seem the world is becoming more evil as we now have politicians and
government agencies calling for violence[1],
treason [2]and
abandonment of the rule of law (Covington KY, Kavanaugh, Mueller, etc.etc) from
their positions of influence, but I wonder if instead of more evil, the evil
has become more strategic. Sin and evil
are one in the same, offensive to the heart of God, violently harmful to the
Kingdom dwellers, part and parcel of the sin nature in the human
condition. It all has the same source
and the same solution. But the more
strategic and focused the evil becomes, the more intense our focus on the LORD
must be to walk free of it. Evil can
easily change its appearance so you are never totally sure which side to even
fight on! If we rely on our own
understanding, we are easily distracted by that which elicits anger, our own
hostility, desire for revenge, and even fear.
Those responses are just as offensive to God as the evil that elicits
them. We are also at risk of joining
ranks with the wrong forces in a world where words are constantly re-defined so
as to deceive.
It appears we are in an age of accelerated
evil. Within my lifetime the morality of
this culture has eroded to not only accept abortion, infanticide, and same sex
marriage, but celebrate them, legislate them and regard them as positions of
moral superiority. A tenuous grip on one’s
faith would make this a terrifying place.
This is the battle ground in which we need our ears tuned to the LORD’s
whisper such that it can be heard above the turmoil and sounds of chaos. Spiritual warfare is noisy. And this is most definitely a spiritual
battle. If I look at an opponent through
earthly eyes, I am angered – hostilities rise.
But if I view the situation after sufficient time in my prayer closet, I
see the spiritual blindness of lost sheep, pitifully making their way through a
world in which they are pawns of a masterful gamesman, Satan. Then I am roused to pray, feel compassion,
realize my response must follow a strategy I cannot see nor discern in my own
strength. This is where I must turn off
the news, close my eyes and the door to the world, and fall on my face before
the LORD praying for wisdom.
Knowledge. Understanding. That I may navigate this world as His chosen
one, walking in integrity, thankful that He will guard the path of justice…
That is where this proverb becomes my roadmap for strategic prayer for today. In my prayer closet I can battle the forces
that seek to defeat as many Christians as possible, strategically causing them
to stumble - - over their righteous anger
– stumble over what they SHOULD feel in response to a sin being legislated and
tax funded - - the problem is if this is dealt with in the flesh, it brings the
Christian to a place of hostility and anger, instead of dealing in the spirit,
where it brings the Christian to a place of deep mourning for the lost and
blinded sheep. Sheep sense the one they
are safe with – and if we are dealing with hostility on our hearts that is
going to leak out and repel those we seek to draw in to the saving space of
grace, forgiveness, mercy and redemption. God’s message will never change,
despite the new depths to which people will sink to fight Satan’s battle. Joy, love and peace are still supposed to be
the hallmark of a Christian. Even today.
