Three Certainties

"They will fight against you...They will not overcome you... I am with you to deliver you" (Jer 1:19). There are three things that are absolutely certain for the disciples of the Lord, as we see in the above verse. (1) Satan and his agents will fight against us. (2) They will not overcome us. (3) The Lord will always be with us to deliver us.

The certainty of Opposition

As long as we are in the world, we will have to face tribulation, persecution and trials. It will never be otherwise. So we need not expect an easy time - either in our work-place or in our personal life - in the coming days. Days of financial difficulties will come. So even now, we must learn to live simply. Those who live in luxury will find things difficult in the future. We must be wise in saving some money for the future so that we don't have to depend on others. But we must never depend on our savings. Our trust must be in the Lord alone. God is a jealous God and He will never allow us to trust in created things. God is going to shake the world's financial systems very soon, so that all those who trust in created things will be thoroughly shaken. In the coming days, we will also see brothers betraying their brothers, because all will seek their own safety. We have already seen something of that. But we will see more of it in the future. Our own family members will become our enemies and hate us. Some of us have already seen a little of that. We will see more of it in the future. There will also be active persecution of believers in offices and elsewhere. This will purify us and make us better Christians. Many believers are hoping that one of these days all their trails will all be over. But that day will come only when Jesus returns, not before.

The certainty of Satan's defeat

It is impossible for Satan or any of his demons or human agents to defeat us spiritually. 1 Peter 3:13 says that no-one can harm us if we always seek to do good. So let us determine, by God's grace, to do good to one and all. Let us love those who hate us, bless those who curse us and pray for the forgiveness of those who persecute us. Then no-one will be able to harm us. Satan and his agents may cheat us., trouble us, harass us, rob us, injure us, imprison us and even kill our bodies. But they will not be able to harm us spiritually. God is , and always will be on the throne. Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth. And Satan has been defeated once-for-all on Calvary's cross. Satan does not have to be defeated once again by us. We only have to believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Satan has been defeated on the cross and that he has no power over us any more. Satan cannot discourage us or depress us or frighten us with anything, as long as we hold fast to this confession. We can overcome Satan by the word of our testimony against him (Rev 12:11)

The certainty of the Lord being with us.

The Lord will never leave us nor forsake us. He won't leave us even when we slip up and fall. He only wants us to be honest with Him about our failures. The Lord is near to the broken- hearted. The promise in Psalm 37:23(LB) is that even when we fall, our fall won't be fatal, because the Lord will hold us with His Hand. He will not only make the evil that others do to us to work for our good., He will also make our own failures to work together for our good. He will make all things work together for our very best. The Lord will deliver us from every evil and bring us through triumphantly. He will keep us from falling and present us perfect to the Father one day. Our confidence is in His ability to keep us until the end and not in our own ability to endure until the end. So we look to the future with great boldness and confidence. Let us run the race looking away from everything else, unto Jesus(Heb 12:2). May we never keep looking at either our present weaknesses or our past failures. True humility is to acknowledge that nothing good dwells in us (Romans 7:18). If nothing good dwells inside us, then why do we look inside ourselves at all? Let us also stop looking at our past failures. That will only discourage us. We must make a firm decision now, to forget the past and press on to the future. Let us look at Jesus alone. He will make us overcomers, no matter how weak we are today and no matter how much we have failed in the past. Hallelujah!. Amen