A few weeks ago, I received an SMS from a friend saying something like āPlease pray, Iām feeling very much under attack at the momentā. As I pondered on the words āunder attackā, I was reminded of so many other occasions when I had received similar messages with the same phrase. Perhaps you know the feeling? Maybe youāre even feeling āunder attackā right now.
I donāt know about you, but when I think of this phrase I visualise a person crouched down, trying to protect their head with their hands while bullets fly past them, all the while screaming āIām under attack! Help! Help! Iām under attack!ā Spiritually, that seems to be how people feel as they start praying and quickly send out messages asking others to pray for them.
As soon as I received the message I said a quick prayer for my friend, but then I had to ask myself some questions. āIs it OK for a Christian to be āunder attackā? Is it Godās will? Is there anything we can do to stop it happening? Is desperate prayer the only thing that works in that situation? And what about the times when desperate prayer doesnāt seem to work?ā
āUnder attackā wasnāt a phrase Iād ever used to describe myself since becoming a Christian. I wondered why Iāve never felt āunder attackā. Why are there no examples of believers in the New Testament describing themselves as being āunder attackā in the helpless kind of way that we hear Christians using the phrase today?
A day or two after receiving the SMS, I was reading Proverbs and I came across the most incredible verse. It says, āThe fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by troubleā (Proverbs 19:23). I thought to myself, āWow! Is it even possible to live untouched by trouble?ā I was so taken aback by these words that I had to check another version. Hereās the same verse in the King James Version āThe fear of the Lord tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.ā
I was instantly reminded of the fact that one of the first books I read as a new believer (aged seventeen) was āThe Fear of the Lordā by John Bevere. I remember being utterly amazed by the absolutely incredible promises God makes in His Word to those who fear Him. Since then, Iāve sought with all my heart to understand and live my life in the fear of the Lord. Does that mean Iāve never been through hard times? No. But in those hard times, Godās desire is that I would be an overcomer. I believe that His desire for you is the same, and the fear of the Lord is one of the most significant keys youāll need along the way.
What is the fear of the Lord? Well, we havenāt got time to go into that in any depth now, so I wholeheartedly recommend you read the book for yourself. Very quickly though, the fear of the Lord is a āfountain of lifeā (Proverbs 14:27), itās the beginning of knowledge and wisdom (Proverbs 1:7 & Proverbs 9:10), it keeps us from sinning (Exodus 20:20 & Proverbs 16:6) and it brings health to our body (Proverbs 3:7-8). Those who fear God lack nothing (Psalm 34:9) and God shares His secrets with them (Psalm 25:14). If you spend the next year learning how to live in the fear of the Lord, your Christian life could become a totally different experience.
Prayer: Father, I want to thank You today that thereās a way we can live our life that will allow us to be āuntouched by troubleā and ānot visited with evilā. Iām sorry for the times that Iāve not lived in the fear of the Lord. Iām sorry for the times when my opinion has been more important to me than what Your Word says, and Iām sorry for the times when Iāve invited trouble into my life by the way Iāve lived. Please teach me what it means to live in the fear of the Lord. I want to drink from the fountain of life and have a deeper level of intimacy with You than Iāve ever known before. In Jesusā name, Amen.
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"The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death."
Proverbs 14:27, NIV
David Steele is a young man who is passionate about teaching the Word of God and declaring a gospel that is full of power to change peopleās lives. After serving for 7 and a half years at Ellel Pierrepont, David, his wife Hannah and their two daughters moved to Hungary in 2016 and are working with Ellel 'Central and Eastern Europe Development' (CEED) where they are teaching, ministering and training ministry teams across that region.
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