GOD’S WORD FOR JULY 5~ ~ Isaiah 59:19~ ~ “So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.”

John Piper continues about trusting God for our protection, in “The Pleasures of God”

God is not displeased with the strength of the horse and legs of a man, He is displeased with those who HOPE in their horses that he has made. He is displeased with people who put their hope, for example, in missiles, or in makeup, in tanks or tanning parlors, in bombs or body building. God takes no pleasure in corporate efficiency or balanced budgets; in welfare systems or new vaccines or education or eloquence; in artistic excellent or legal processes, when these things are the treasure in which we hope, or the achievement in which we boast.

Why? Because when we put our hope in “horses and legs), then horses and legs get the glory, not God.

Thus, when we say that God exults over his people with loud singing, we mean that he exults over THOSE WHO HOPE IN HIS LOVE In this way, God maintains his rightful place—the place we love for him to have—at the center of the gospel. There is a condition we must meet in order to know him as our God and be a part of the wonderful covenant in which he never turns away from doing us good but rejoices over us with all his heart and soul.

That condition is to put our hope in him as the all-satisfying Refuge and Treasure. God takes pleasure in this response with all his heart, because it magnifies the glory of his grace and satisfies the longing of our soul.

(I’d like to clarify something here—-when the Bible uses the word “hope” to us it speaks of “I hope so…..not sure, but hope so” but that is NOT what the word in the original language meant to the early readers.

It means a surety, a promise from One who cannot fail, lie, or be mistaken. It is something that WILL HAPPEN without question, not just a wish, but a SURE THING. This is the word used always for our eternal life in Christ Jesus. If you have acknowledged Jesus as your Savior, acknowledged your sin and asked for forgiveness, and are wanting to live for Him for the rest of your life, with His help, then you can be ASSURED of salvation, and living with Him forever.

Otherwise, none of the promises given in the Word are for you. To be assured of all that God promised, repent of your sins and ask Him to come into your life and take control in His love and power. Salvation is not from us. We can’t save ourselves, no matter how “good” we think we are. ….Remember, that tiny lie you said as a child is enough to keep you from heaven on your own record…. It’s all done by God. But He won’t force it upon anyone. We have free will. We have to ask Him to do it, and want His perfect will in our lives from now on.)

IPeter 3:12,13

“For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if you be followers of that which is good?”

Ephesians 1:19

“and what is the boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might”

Ephesians 2:6

 “and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”

(That is what happens in the spirit when we’re saved—so we have contact with God in this life through the Holy Spirit.)

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