November 9, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“See, the storm of the Lord will burst out in wrath, a driving wind swirling down on the heads of the wicked. The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back until He fully accomplishes the purposes of His heart. In days to come you will understand this.“

(Jeremiah 30.23-24)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

You know, hard times, troubling situations and difficult challenges will do this to you. What’s “this”? As I remember someone once say “If it doesn’t cure you, it will kill you.” Let’s just say it and get it over at the start. I will say it with Jesus’ words from John 10.10, “The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy.” If this is the intent and hope of the enemy who stands against God and us, then it is not the intent and hope of the ally who stands with us against the enemy. What I hear Jesus saying in that teaching is a description of what the Enemy desires to do and not what he can do. There are many things we have a desire to do but regardless of effort and beliefs to the contrary we simply will not be able to do. Equally, there are things we would never imagine that we could do but because we believe that God is able to do far more than we can imagine to accomplish His will we may well do it. Remember “It is not we who ‘live’ but Christ who lives in us.” (Galatians 2.20) Of course, Paul and Jesus are expressing a spiritual truth about the believer and unbelievers or non-believers alike. That is a truth which we must understand in terms of the Enemy as well. Our true Enemy is Satan, the fallen Lucifer who was cast down and out of Heaven. He has power and an identity. He does not have sovereignty. He is not unlimited and beyond rebuke. We know from the story of Job, that Satan, the Accuser, can do a lot of things to the world of mortal men but he has no power nor providence over the soul of every man, woman and child. Thus, while he would love to believe that he can “steal, kill and destroy,” he cannot. So how do these things happen? Quite simply, human beings put themselves into positions of danger, compromise and vulnerability believing more in themselves than believing in the sovereignty of God. They will even put their very souls in jeopardy to the point of surrendering them into enemy hands. He doesn’t have to steal, kill and destroy. We will do that for him instead of surrendering, living and building up for our ally: God the Father; Jesus Christ His Son and the Holy Spirit which is the tether that unites us all as one.

Back to “what does not kill us makes us stronger.” So, what do hard times, troubling situations and difficult challenges do to us? They make us stronger. Because the enemy is at work against us and God, we will face all of those aforementioned scenarios. We may even fall victim to those scenarios which are occurring in the lives of others (for example those who lost their lives in the recent UPS cargo jetliner crash in Louisville, Kentucky). It is not easy living in this broken world. It has been broken for a very long time. We know it was broken by humans in the Garden of Eden who surrendered themselves to the lie told by Satan the Deceiver. He told them that God was the One whose intention was to create them in order to “steal, kill and destroy” them. What would that mean? Well, consider this as possible scenarios and see if you don’t agree and then come up with others yourself:

STEAL opportunities, KILL dreams and DESTROY all hope.

The lie was that God wanted to deny Adam and Eve of their “God-given right to be free.” Mighty ones of God, nothing could have been further from the truth. God did not want to deny them such a right, He was empowering them to exercise that right and choose “rightly” the way they should go, the truth they would believe and the life they would live in honor of the God who created them, sustained them and gave them life in the first place. Satan put the twist on the reality of Immanuel, God with us, to serve his own purpose. He counted on the innocence of God’s people to dissuade them from being “the people of God.” I am not sure how it happened that Adam and Eve could have had such a total experience with God in the Garden that they would surrender a future of peace, prosperity and purpose for something other than that. But, it happens every day. God continues to reveal Himself in the miracle of creation from sunrise to sunset and all parts in between; from conception of life to its transition through death to life again; from the marvels and wonders of nature itself revealed in a myriad of presentations in color, shape, form and intensity; and yes, even in our own ability to conceive of the mysteries of it all and enter into the creative process ourselves. Don’t think for a moment, however, that God had not considered it all before we ever did. There is nothing “new under the sun.” God has seen it all. As it is written “God does indeed work all things together for good for those who love God and who abide by the calling of His purpose for their lives.” (Romans 8.28) And that is where the difference exists in the midst of all the hard times, troubling situations and difficult challenges.

We can look at them all as a part of God’s plan of redemption. We are now an unfinished work. We were once whole but not because of sin we are broken. We have acted in disobedience and mistrust. We have exercised our own will over against God’s will. We have considered options not aligned with His righteousness for us to be of equal or greater value. We have risked negative consequences for positive promises. So, putting ourselves in harm’s way takes longer for healing and a more arduous journey to recovery. Why we would want to do it that hard way is nearly impossible to conceive as what makes sense but we think it does and try it. Fortunately, God is not finished with us yet as He was not and is not finished with Israel, His people, yet. He desires to redeem them and restore them and reconcile them back to their true place and true identity in life. He will even use the witness of non-Jewish believers to share His will to do so. It may cause us a bit of hardship but giving ourselves to this calling will grant us the receiving of that greatest reward: Immanuel. Mighty ones of God, let’s stay to the course set before us and run the good race, fight the good fight (as Paul said) as well as commit ourselves to the call of authentic love believing that God will make it all right for those who put their trust in Him.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.