This week, we continued our study of Isaiah with the lesson, “God’s Strength to Deliver.” As you know, I like to share notes from my weekly teaching here on the blog. So, let’s start by looking at the meditation verse for this lesson —
‘Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” ‘ – Isaiah 35:3-4 (NIV)
To overcome the enemy of our souls, we must first recognize that we do have an enemy, who seeks to devour us. The enemy has a plan against you; do you have a plan against the enemy? It is important to recognize what the enemy’s tactics are and know how to respond to them.
Here are some typical assaults from the enemy:
• Tempting us to look at/focus on our own weak resources (and not God’s strength)
• Giving us a false sense of peace
• Twisting God’s Truth
How do we recognize when we’ve allowed the enemy’s tactics to influence us?
…when our response(s) are any/all of the following:
• Fear due to intimidation
• Compromise
• Unholy alliance with the enemy
• Losing faith in our leader (in God)
• Creating a mob effect
• Seeking false peace (easy way out) over true peace (risky and dependence on God)
We must never lose confidence in the fact that God fights our battles for us. “Courage! Take heart! God is here, right here, on his way to put things right and redress all wrongs. He’s on his way! He’ll save you!” – Isaiah 35:3-4 (MSG)
