Whose Battle is it?

Psalm 124

Verse 2 …if the Lord had not been on our side when people attacked us,…

There is nothing like knowing that the Lord is always with us. We mentioned as we came to a close yesterday that God works in the details of life, even in the trying times when we face cancer, loss of a job or an accident. But what about when we face great opposition and are attacked by other people?

Most of us don’t know what it means to be attacked in the way that the people singing this song in David’s time did. We are not experiencing physical danger from others on a regular basis but that doesn’t mean that we are immune from the truths of this psalm of traveling worship. While physical attacking isn’t culturally accepted in our part of the world, it still can happen from time to time. What we need to watch out for in our society are the attacks against our character.

Sometimes these attacks are because we are Christians as we talked about the other day but sometimes it is simply that some people are just evil. Social media has seemed to increase this as people we don’t know, feel like we have a right to know how their opinion differs from ours. It is so easy to get sucked up into these online arguments and yet what we may be doing is joining into an attack. These attacks don’t have as much to do with the topic being commented on as much as it is about asserting one’s opinion as the only thing that matters.

We all know that one person who thinks they are the only one that knows anything on any topic and will fight for their opinion no matter how many times they have been proven wrong. As we mentioned earlier some arguments are not about the topic as much as they are about the person. Such is the case with some of the attacks that David was talking about.

As worshippers of God we must be intentional about not being one of those people who attack others. Christ stood for truth but didn’t attack even when being attacked. We can easily fall into the trap of wanting to counter attack, defending ourselves and those around us but we need to stand our ground without going on attack. There are times we need to keep our mouths shut to prove we are His.

Making It Personal

Have you ever felt attacked? Was it about a real topic or about personal opinion? What steps do you need to take to make sure you don’t fall into the trap of attacks?

Making It Personal Kids

Why doesn’t Jesus want us to argue about things all the time? Do you argue a lot with your brothers or sisters? How can you learn what Jesus would want you to take a stand about?

Closing Prayer

Father, we are so easily angered and upset about things that don’t really matter in the long run. Help us learn to worship You by only speaking up when You want us to and help us keep our mouths shut when that is what would please You. In Jesus’ name, amen.