As I was meditating on today's reading in Psalm 64, I was reminded again of THIS from Joshua 1:8:
8 This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.
This is the BEST "formula" for success in any and every area of our lives! Find out what God's Word has to say about it! THEN keep meditating on that (thinking about, speaking about, pondering, musing, listening) until it becomes SO real that you cannot even think about believing anything less! AMEN! Psalm 64 shows us another reason that this is so very important! Verses 1-6:
1 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; guard and preserve my life from the terror of the enemy. 2 Hide me from the secret counsel and conspiracy of the ungodly, from the scheming of evildoers, 3 Who whet their tongues like a sword, who aim venomous words like arrows, 4 Who shoot from ambush at the blameless man; suddenly do they shoot at him, without self-reproach or fear. 5 They encourage themselves in an evil purpose, they talk of laying snares secretly; they say, Who will discover us? 6 They think out acts of injustice and say, We have accomplished a well-devised thing! For the inward thought of each one [is unsearchable] and his heart is deep.
This IS what the enemy does! He studies YOU! He learns just what makes you get off course and then sets about doing some, or all, of those things to get you to quit! REFUSE HIM! Don't give up even a tiny bit of your control over your life to him! Submit your will to God and His Word! THEN resist every thought the devil brings your way! You CAN! James tells us so in James 4:7!
7 So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.
Rick Renner has an excellent take on this from the Greek language in his original "Sparkling Gems From The Greek":
It's time for you to resist the enemy of your soul. Let him know that you're not going to bite that bait anymore, so he may as well go fishing somewhere else. You're no longer going to be a sucker! You have just been informed that there is a deadly hook inside that bait that is designed to hook you, pull you into the devil's net, and turn you into dead meat for the devil to chomp on for a long time. But he has hooked you with that bait for the last time!
James 4:7 has good news for you. It says that if you will resist the devil, he will "flee" from you. The word "flee" in Greek is so exciting! It is from the word pheugomai, which from the earliest times of Greek literature meant to flee or to take flight. It was used to depict a lawbreaker who flees in terror from a nation where he broke the law. The reason he flees so quickly is that he wants to escape the prosecution process. Remaining in the nation would most assuredly mean judgment; so rather than stay and face the consequences, the lawbreaker flees for his life.
This means the devil knows that he is a lawbreaker! He also knows that if a believer stands against him - in other words, if the believer resists the enemy by using his God-given authority in the name of Jesus and with the Word of God - it won't be long until that believer begins to rule and dominate the devil. Rather than allow this to happen, the devil begins to withdraw and look for a way to escape the prosecution process. Instead of sticking around and trying hopelessly to defend himself against the name of Jesus and the Word of God, the devil tucks his tail and runs! That is precisely what James means when he says that the devil will "flee."
AMEN! Do you see this? Now let's look at Rick's expanded version of verse 7 with the meaning of the original writings intact!"Stand firmly against the devil! That's right - be unbending and unyielding in the way you resist him so that he knows he is up against a serious contender. If you'll take this kind of stand against him, he will tuck his tail and run like a criminal who knows the day of prosecution is upon him. Once you start resisting him, he'll flee from you in terror!"
AMEN! Don't even give the enemy an inch! YOU know his future fate, and he has heard it, but YOU can remind him! YOU have all the authority over him in YOUR life! USE IT! Here is Hillsong UNITED with "Not Today!":
Shalom in Him!
