Wednesday – May 17, 2023

Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus

Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)

The present activity of Satan and the demons culminates in the unprecedented Tribulation period (Revelation 9). Things will be worse then, but they are bad enough now. We need “the whole armour of God” (Ephesians 6:13) to “stand therefore” (verse 14). We need “the helmet of salvation” (verse 17) to protect our minds from Satan’s attempts to rob us of the assurance of eternal life through faith in Jesus, God the Son. I John 4:4b proclaims, “Greater is He [God the Holy Spirit] that is in you, than he [Satan] that is in the world.” This is truth for each day, including today. Yet the demonic assaults can wear us down, and we may find that our enjoyment of our Lord’s daily protection and provision is not as fresh and vigorous as at other times. Probably the biggest problems of the Church overall are compromise, accommodation, and apathy. However, for the devout and dedicated Christian, it is likely that Satan’s greatest weapon against us is discouragement. He will seek to cast doubt on our labor for the Lord, calling it worthless – and, by extension, trying to convince us that we are worthless, too. God’s Word is always realistic; thus, Galatians 6:9 simply commands, “Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Our Savior God knows that we can become “weary” to the point of giving up (the meaning of “faint”). However, the promise of God is that we will “reap” if we persist in the battle. Let us then “take the helmet of salvation” and fight demonic discouragement.