God’s Mercies for You in the Good Fight- Babylon Falling Grace Rising #12

I’m worn out and my prayer closet is experiencing water damage. Salt water.

Babylon is definitely falling but it’s like a dying dragon that’s clawing and lashing out all the way down. I know God wins and I’m still in the fight, but today I need encouragement and reminders of what I know to be true about him and his Word. How about you? What is wearing you out spiritually? Here’s my list.

I’m numb from the battles that cancer wins on this earth. Yes, God carries his suffering children through to victory here in this life or the next so we always have hope, but impact of the pains that torment bodies and the loss of everything normal along the way cannot be calculated.

I’m weary of people fighting for the right to sin.

I’m weary of politicians who legislate sin, especially the ones who pretend to be champions of godly values while they campaign, then reveal their true beliefs in office.

I’m all done with the devastation to families, courtesy of Babylon’s ever-sinking morality standards and increasing promotion of sexually perverse lifestyles.

Some days, I’m cried out and prayed out for the millions of victims of human trafficking, Babylon’s most profitable industry according to many experts.

I’m broken over the sin strongholds Babylon cunningly builds in teens and young adults raised in the family of God, using media, entertainment industries, drugs, alcohol, fake religions, witchcraft, and premarital sex.

I’m not speaking in the abstract here. These are all real situations with real people in my small world. If you are weary in the fight also, here’s some stuff Holy Spirit brought to my memory that lifted me today. I hope this can help you too and keep you from giving up or giving in. I want to help you be a spiritual marine in God’s army, where we improvise, adapt, and overcome, no matter the circumstance or trial.

God Draws Near to the Suffering

Whatever is breaking your heart today, be assured that no matter what you might FEEL, God is moving closer to you, not farther away. Feelings are unreliable. God is not. In one of his darkest times, King David wrote, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit,” in Psalm 34:18.  I know it can feel like God is aloof, silent, whatever, when we are deeply suffering but that’s a Babylonian lie. Don’t let Satan lead you into the treacherous waters of “Well if God really cared, he’d do this that or the other.” Read all of Psalm 34 and be confident of God’s nearness. Jesus warned us that suffering would be part and parcel of this life. God promised that no matter what the trial or challenge may be, he will not leave us. (Hebrews 13:5) The holy Trinity does not lie.

God is Lord of the Seasons and Seasons Pass

Yes, right now it seems that Satan and his minions are scoring far too many victories but, it shall not always be so.  I am more certain than ever that the Great Awakening has begun and that’s why sin, sickness and disease seem to be so ramped up. Dark forces can see what’s happening in the unseen world better than we can. And what’s happening is that humans and the body of Christ are waking up from a long sleep. We are starting to say, “No more!” to sin and evil that we have previously permitted. We must not allow ourselves to remain downhearted about whatever short-lived wins Satan might achieve currently.

Satan thought he won the battles with Joseph trapped in slavery, Moses hiding out in exile, Jonah walking away from God and his calling, David in his sins of adultery and murder, Christ on the cross and in the tomb and millions of other God-followers through the centuries. Suffering, trials, and setbacks are only chapters in our stories, not the conclusion of them.

For encouragement, read Ecclesiastes chapter 3. God is telling us that there is always movement in this life. People and situations come into our lives while other stuff moves out. Ask God to help you discern what season you are in right now so that you can line up your expectations and prayers with what He is doing, which is often quite different from what you think he should be doing. Your season-changing deliverer is always near.

Our Prayers and Intercessions Are More Powerful than We Realize

We are so impatient, as products of our culture. We pray a time or two or maybe even for some months and when nothing changes, we are tempted to think, “What’s the point? James 5:16 declares that our prayers are powerful and effective. The angst we feel with the gaps between requests and answers is of our own making as God’s timeline is always perfect.

Our heavenly Father stores up every single one of our prayers and when the time is right and things and people aligned according to his will, he will pour out his solutions, healing, and blessings. This is why Paul told us, in Galatians 6:9 not to stop the good things we are doing, our prayers and our acts of service and sacrifice. I’m certain I’ve given up on situations too soon because of impatience.

God Showers Us with His Mercies When We Falter in the Fight

My favorite story and verse on this topic are from Exodus 34. Moses and the Israelites have escaped Egypt for good and are now in the wilderness. Things are not going well. God wanted personal relationship with his chosen people and when he invited them to draw near to him, the people said “No, no, no! This God is too scary! You talk to him face to face Moses; we don’t want to.” So up Mount Sinai Moses goes to meet face to face with God. When he comes back down, the people are worshipping and sinning before an idol they made, the infamous golden calf. When Moses confronts them and his brother Aaron, who was supposed to be in charge, they all lie and say, “We just threw the gold in a fire and this calf came out.” Right. Come on. Can you imagine the discouragement Moses felt?

He probably imagined a glorious journey of leading God’s newly formed nation to their promised land. Instead, it is turned into a forty year saga of sin and failures on the people’s part. After Moses chews out the Israelites for the calf nonsense, and they repent, back up the mountain Moses goes, I’ll bet much more slowly this time. Did he wonder what new debacle would greet him when he came down? Did he fear that God would destroy this nation instead of blessing it? In that terrible, discouraged moment, when I think Moses probably wanted to quit, God appears to him and says quite a bit but verse 6 of chapter 34 speaks to my heart especially when I want to give up the fight some days.

“Yahweh! The Lord!

The God of compassion and mercy!
I am slow to anger
 and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.

Isn’t that just like our God? There are times when he unleashes the depths of his anger against the Israelites during their forty years in the desert, but in this moment, he knows that Moses needs encouragement, not a chewing out. God is the same for you and me. He’s not yelling at me, or you, when we want to throw in the towel sometimes and say, “Oh, bag it all.” Not at all. Instead, he sees you and me faltering and he sends mercies, so that we may fight another day.

Take rest breaks and time to refresh and regroup in God’s presence and with places and people who restore your soul, but don’t give up. Don’t stop praying for that healing, that prodigal, that financial breakthrough. Don’t lose faith when answers are delayed. God is showering mercies on you every day to keep you going until your next breakthrough comes.

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. Lamentations 3:22. NKJ