If You’ re STILL Unsure About God

Perhaps you still aren’t totally sure about Christ.  You just want to be sure that His love is for real, that He’s true to His Word and won’t let you down when push comes to shove.  I’ve received countless answers to prayer, some of them miraculous.  My husband, daughter, and I have seen God’s power in action.

The God I love and serve is very merciful.  If you feel the need for Him to prove His love to you, why not “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalms 34:7-8). If satan is bullying you,  pray this prayer out loud, speaking to Him from the depths of a sincere, seeking heart. Don’t hurry through it, but meditate deeply upon it until the Peace of God fills your being, and calm returns to your troubled soul.  God’s peace is a sure sign that your prayer has been answered.

 Dear God in heaven, I’ve been burnt by so many people and have often felt that life itself is one bad trip going to nowhere.  Perhaps I’ve even gone so far as to question Your fairness in putting me on this earth in the first place.  A world where I’ve often felt unwanted and unneeded, and been betrayed even by people I thought were my friends.

I still have my doubts.  I can’t pretend otherwise.  But still, I’m open to any proofs You could give me that You do care, and are both willing and able to deliver me from trouble. 

I feel insecure and threatened, Lord.  I hate being taunted and stared at.  At times, I feel that others intend very real harm against me.  Please befriend me, even though I’m still unsure about You.

I do desperately want and need the intervention and protection of Your guardian angels. Please dispatch powerful warring angels to do battle against unseen entities of darkness which motivate others to want to hurt me. Not everyone will respond to words of kindness, for some are so hardened in heart that they are determined to have their perverse fun. Jesus prayed:  “Father, forgive them (His enemies), for they know not what they do. But hardened bullies know full well what they are doing! They commit crimes because they think they can get away with it, not because they have no inkling that their cruelty is wrong. I realize that Your very nature is love, but sometimes love has to be tough.  So if it is necessary for my protection from physical harm, I  ask You to take strong disciplinary action against my human foes.  It is written in Your Word that You have authority to chastise the heathen.  I do not want You to inflict permanent injury upon these dangerous enemies, but to punish them enough to strike the fear of God into their hearts, and to prevent them from posing any further threat to my safety.

As for emotional attacks, I ask that You would remind me that the insults of others are built on the lies of the devil, because nothing satan says about me is ever Your truth, just destructive garbage.  Satan is a liar, and no truth abides in him.  I ask that You would be a  Mighty Shield round about My soul, and to so undergird me with an awareness of my value to You, that nothing bullies say would have the power to faze me. If the bully gets so frustrated by my composure that he resorts to physical threats, I pray that You would arise to my defense and fight for me, even as you fought for Your Chosen People in the Bible. I ask that you would even render all enemies, human and demonic,  powerless, Lord, and cause them to fall into any traps they set for me.  I know the bully in my life could not even draw his next breath to threaten me with unless You permitted it, so I ask that you would take away his strength and influence over others.  I ask You to break any power he has over me, and to render powerless all his evil alliesc. The bully acts like a kingpin immune to punishment, O Lord, but in Jesus’ Name I ask that You would hit him with Isaiah 14:5, which promises You will break the sceptre of the enemy’s power.  And once they have fallen from power, please help me to leave them in Your hands, rather than fantasizing about revenge.

It is written in Psalms that even if an whole army pits itself against me, I can trust in Your protection.  Please, Lord.  Every time I leave my house, let a contingent of angels go with me to act as my bodyguard.  And set a cordon of guardian angels round about my dwelling place so I’ll feel secure in my own home, safe from intruders who mean to rob or harm me.  You are well able to do this.  In the Old Testament, You defeated entire armies with just one warring angel.  You protected Lot from a big gang of perverts who tried to break down his door so they could attack him. You will give me the confidence that You are able to handle even a gang of bullies.  But at the same time, I will never deliberately seek a confrontation to put You to the test.  Prudence is a virtue you impart to the wise.  I pray that Your angels would contrive to keep those wicked ones out of my way, and hinder them from getting at me in the first place. Please put obstacles in their pathway to keep them from meeting up with me.

Please, Lord, touch me with the power of Your Holy Spirit to heal any injuries I’ve received, either physical or emotional.  I even ask that anything stolen from me or destroyed by the bully would be fully restored.  For it is written:  For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.  I ask You to prove Yourself to me as the Almighty, Ever Living God of the Universe Who restores the broken in heart, to be to me the Lord Who heals, and  the Mighty Warrior God Who fights in defense of His people. 

Lord, You promised in I Corinthians 10:13 that You would make a way of escape from unbearable troubles.  Lord, the bully gloats about my predicament.  He brags that he/she/they’re invincible, and the boss/teacher/parent doesn’t give a hoot what happens to me.  He says there’s nowhere I can run to get away.  That he’ll hurt me worse tomorrow than he did today.  Lord, I feel trapped.  If there is no way out of this mess, please CREATE A WAY OF ESCAPE that wasn’t there before.  Please fight for me, even physically punishing my enemies Yourself if that would end the problem and keep me and others safe.

If only You would do these things for me, Lord, I will be so grateful to You.   I just need for You to make the first move, to prove that You really are my dearest Friend and will defend me.  In Jesus’ Holy Name, amen.

God:  Avenger of All Unrighteousness

We are to desire for justice done be done on unrepentant bullies. Not  to satisfy some ungodly lust for revenge, but that God might be glorified in His role as the Supreme Judge of all the Earth. While it’s only human to feel furious with evil people, much of my discontent springs from this: Bad bullies do bad things in a world God created for good, and they laugh all the way to the Bank of Hell with precious things they’ve stolen from their victims: basic human dignity, being able to reach out and love others, personal confidence, peace, emotional and physical health.

The bully, who has not partaken of the nature of Christ,  is already condemned to hell (John 3:18). Hell is the bully’s home town, for he is from beneath (John 8:23), and will spend eternity there with satan, who is his father and instructor in wickedness. The bully in hell will not be pitied by God when the awful waves  of His fearsome wrath relentlessly sweep over his damned soul. That is only fitting, for the bully had no pity on his victims while he lived on earth.  The fact that the day to day crushing of the victim’s helpless soul was beyond endurance did not cause the bully to lighten his oppression in the least.  God declares His enmity toward those who fill the land with violence (Ezekiel 8:17-18).  God pronounces doom upon  them:  Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity:  and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

Again in Ezekiel 9:9:  Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness:  for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not.*****  The sinners depicted here fully expected to get away with it, because God was up in heaven minding His own business and they were down on the earth doing their dirty business unhindered.

At least that’s what they thought.  God says they’re only fooling themselves.  And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their own head. (verse 10). *****That’s the perfect justice of God.  What you sow, you reap.

Psalms Chapter 7 is the prayer of a desperate man who prays for God to save him from his enemies.  His enemies are rending (tearing) his soul into pieces (verse 2). The Psalmist goes on to plead with God that he is unjustly being persecuted and has done nothing to provoke the attack.  The persecuted man pleads with God to judge rightly and bring the wickedness of the wicked to an end.  These verses, followed by my commentary,  warn of the terrible judgment in store for violent evil men:

Psalms 7: 11  God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.***** God is no overindulgent grandpa sitting in the sky who turns a blind eye to sin.  God can get boiling mad! God is angry with the wicked every single day.

Psalms 7: 12  If he (the sinner) turn not, he (God) will whet his sword: he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.  Jesus, Who many say would never allow any unrepentant sinner to go to hell says in Luke 13:3: Repent, or ye shall all likewise perish.”Repent” is derived from the Latin re+pentare, which means to turn again.   Unless a sinner returns from his wicked way (Isaiah 55:7) God will whet (sharpen) His sword of judgment.  Already He has bent his bow to shoot at the sinner hardened in impenitence and unbelief.

Psalms 7: 13  He (God) hath prepared for him (the enemy) the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.**** God has already prepared weapons of war to use against the persecutor.  He has ordained (chosen) which arrows to draw from His quiver to fire from His bow of judgment. This concept of God preparing things for a purpose is Scriptural.  God prepared something good, a shady shrub, to shield Jonah from the hot sun.  But Jonah had a bad attitude in his life which needed to be corrected, so God also prepared a worm to eat that shrub (verse 7).  But punishment is infinitely more painful than correction, because there is no hope for sinners who are sitting on God’s death row.  Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels, but wicked men also shall go there (Matt.25:41).  In that sad scene, sinners are sentenced to eternal hellfire for passive sins of refusing to give food to Christ’s hungry brethren, or to help them in other ways.  How much angrier must God be with a gang of bullies who brutalize a defenseless child or old person!

Other Details of the Fate of the Wicked:

Psalms 7: 14  He (the persecutor) made a pit and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.

 VERSE 15  His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate (crown of his head).

 VERSE 16 closes Psalms Chapter 7 with praise toward God for the righteousness of these judgments.

     Wait a minute.  Didn’t Jesus instruct His disciples to bless them that persecute you in Matthew 5:44? Yes, He did, because lost sinners are possible candidates for salvation. But all sinners ultimately must be judged by God if they will not repent of their sins and by faith accept that Christ received God’s judgment of sin upon Himself.

So much for today’s politically correct concept of a benign grandfather in the sky who never gets mad at anybody, regardless of what they say or do. Some think that Christians are called to be good doormats for Jesus, and have no right to ask God for justice. Jesus Himself refutes that notion in Luke 18:1-8. A poor widow repeatedly appears before an unjust judge, pleading for  him to defend her rights and take action against her adversary.  The unjust judge would not bother to help her for a while, but she kept on coming.  Finally, the judge got tired of listening to her pleas for justice and ruled in her favor.

Notice, gentle Jesus calls this man an unjust judge.  Why? Because of his refusal to avenge the widow.  Does Jesus commend the unjust judge for withholding a judgment which might have caused discomfort or inconvenience to the woman’s enemy?  No, Jesus never did call the judge a just man who was exercising godly love by withholding righteous judgment. Jesus called him an unjust judge.  In the last two verses of that passage Jesus says this: And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.  Nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?

Even the martyred saints in heaven long to see justice done.  In Revelation 6:9-10 a company of departed souls has gathered under the  Throne of God in heaven. They are martyrs, who were killed for their faithfulness to the Word of God and for their testimony of faith in Christ. They ask the Lord of Heaven, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”

Their words shock not because there is something unjust about them, but because they are recorded in the New Testament, an era during which millions have obeyed Christ’s commandment to be patient, love enemies and pray for them. The Church Age has been a  period of long patience and forbearance on God’s part as He has given mankind ample opportunity to repent and receive Christ as Savior.

Perhaps even the martyr Stephen will be present in that company.  If he is, it will most likely be because Stephen wants to see the honor of God vindicated in God’s righteous judgments against blasphemous sinners who have trampled the Name of Christ underfoot in this earth for such a long time. In Acts 7:60 Stephen  prayed for God not to hold his murder  against his enemies.  What marvelous mercy manifested in Stephen’s life!  But Stephen was no softie.  Surrounded by a crowd of angry religious scholars, Stephen stood up to them with God’s truth.  Before the mighty Sanhedrin he presented   a historical  dissertation on  the giving of the Mosaic Law and the Israelites’ inability to be faithful to God under it. Stephen concludes with   verse 51-53: Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of Whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the Law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

Stephen actually calls these eminent religious leaders murderers and betrayers of the only righteous Man Who ever walked this planet!  Talk about chutzpah!  Just think!  These mean old persecutors in their long flowing robes and skull caps reading the prophets hour after hour, conveniently forgetting that some long-ago ancestor of theirs drove those same prophets out of town under a hail of flying stones!

 Well, poor Stephen got his share of stones that day.  But he received a wonderful hero’s welcome in heaven. So wonderful was his joy he forgave his persecutors.  And this begs a question: Time after time the Bible teaches that repentance and faith toward Christ are necessary to receive salvation.  If Stephen’s persecutors died in unbelief, they surely are in hell today.  At least one we know of, Saul of Tarsus, DID repent later and became Paul the Apostle.

If Stephen’s persecutors were going to hell anyway because of refusal to accept Christ’s atonement, why did Stephen ask forgiveness for them? Because Christ forgave His own enemies from the cross, who “knew not what they did”, or were not aware of the horrible sinfulness of their actions. That was God’s grace in action. Also, Stephen might have had familial love for his own ”kinsmen according to the flesh”, as Paul did (Rom.9:1-3).  The Jewish nation has a sense of family connectedness largely lacking in the Gentile world.  Besides that, Stephen manifested concern for his unconverted persecutors, hoping some of them would be saved. The best I can understand it is this way: Say there is a prisoner in jail who owes a million-dollar fine for releasing toxic chemicals into the atmosphere, chemicals so horrible a few people have died.  Unless the fine is paid the prisoner will never be let out. A very rich man takes pity on the prisoner and offers to pay it in his place, but the judge says the rich man cannot do this without the permission of the prisoner.  If the prisoner says “yes”, then the fine can be paid and the prisoner set free.  But for some reason the prisoner hates the rich man’s guts and refuses to give this man the satisfaction of doing something nice for him.  Meanwhile,  the prisoner also racks up a smaller fine for pushing dope in the jail.  The prisoner has a brother who is able to pay the smaller fine but not the bigger fine. The prisoner hates his brother, but not as much as he hates the rich man who offered to get him out of jail.  So the prisoner allows his brother to pay the fine for dope pushing.

Why does the prisoner’s brother pay this fine, knowing it won’t reduce the sentence the guilty man will ultimately serve?  Because it is an act of love, and perhaps, the brother hopes, it may soften his brother’s heart to repentance. Even if Stephen forgave his murderers for killing him, other unrepented-of sins could have doomed his persecutors to hell.  Those of them who refused to repent went there because they committed the much more fatal sin of rejecting Jesus, God’s only Way of Salvation. Many hardened sinners absolutely will not allow Jesus to save them, because they hate Him so much!

During the Great Tribulation, persecutors of believers will be branded with the Mark of the Beast (Rev.13:16-18). Whoever receives this mark will forever forfeit any hope of repentance (Rev.14:9-12). Then the battle lines will be clearly drawn and there will be no more fence-sitters vacillating between the kingdoms of God and satan.  At that time the saints in heaven and on earth will KNOW there is no further possibility for persecutors to receive salvation, so they will have no qualms whatsoever  about calling upon God for judgment to fall upon the wicked.

Jesus’ gentle nature, the supreme delight of saints who have been transformed by His merciful grace, will no longer be available to people who finally choose to side with satan and go to hell.   Those damned souls, who despised meekness as weakness,  will be forever sealed in their sin.  They will be so hardened they would crucify Him a second time if only they could.