The Struggle is Real Part 2
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Run to Godly Influences
Run to Godly Influences
In the spring of 2014, a ground flight crew at Kahului airport in Maui watched in amazement as a teenage boy crawled out of the wheel well of a plane he’d been hiding in during a five- hour flight from San Jose, California. He had no identification or luggage - the only item he brought with him was a comb. But even more incredible than how the boy had gotten there was how he’d survived in the first place. The wheel well of a plane is a tiny, cramped space, and in high altitudes the boy would’ve had no oxygen and been subjected to below- freezing temperatures. The boy later told the authorities he’d run away from his home and just thought Hawaii seemed like a nice place to visit.
You can learn a lot about someone by studying where he runs in times of difficulty. Where do you go when things get tough in your life? Do you run to a friend who is far from God? Do you keep to yourself and stop talking to everyone? Or do you, like the teenage stowaway, just try to find a nice place where you can hide away from it all for awhile?
Do you know where Hezekiah ran in difficulty? He ran to a prayer partner. He immediately sent word to Isaiah and asked him to pray. Second Chronicles 32 tells us that’s exactly what Isaiah did:
And for this cause Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz, prayed and cried to heaven.
When times get tough and you want to get away, the best place to go is to someone who will listen to what’s going on in your life and then will pray with you and direct you back to God. That’s the measure of a good friend and a good sidekick- which is what every dark horse needs.
Iron sharpeneth iron;
So a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
When I think of sidekicks in the Bible, I remember Silas, who ministered with Paul on his missionary journeys. I think of the time Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in prison for preaching the gospel. I know many of us would be pretty desperate at being in prison, but Silas was encouraging. Instead of complaining, he and Paul “sang praises unto God.“
Another time,Paul asked his friends at the church at Colossae to pray for him so he’d have the strength and opportunity to share the good news of Christ:
Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:
if the apostle Paul, who was one of the greatest missionaries and preachers the world has known, needed his friends to pray for the encouragement, why do we think we’re any different.
Remain Confident in Christ
Remain Confident in Christ
So Hezekiah‘s men went to see Isaiah and ask the prophet to speak to God on the kings behalf, and he gave them an encouraging message:
And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
Finally, Hezekiah heard some good news about this Sennacherib Situation. And God was aware of what was happening, and he promised to take care of it. I’m sure Hezekiah must have bread a huge sigh of relief. But while Hezekiah was thinking God for an answer to prayer, somewhere not far away another challenge was brewing. In second Kings 19 verse eight we learn that Sennacherib had his own problems to deal with. Assyria was still fighting battles with other nations while they were trying to intimidate Judah (talk about multitasking!) Which meant Sennacherib couldn’t attack Jerusalem with the full strength of his kingdom just yet. But just becomes Sennacherib’s fighting schedule was tied up at the moment didn’t mean he couldn’t attack Hezekiah in a different way. He wrote to the king of Judah a nasty letter that let Hezekiah know exactly what Sennacherib thought about his faith and his God.
Over the years I’ve been talking to many who began to doubt what they believe when trouble strikes. Some challenge or difficulty will come into their lives, and their confidence in God will be shaken. It is no mistake that your faith is one of the first things the enemy will go after to weaken your defenses. Look at the two areas where Sennacherib wanted to cause Hegelian to doubt his faith.
The Person of God
The Person of God
Sennacherib’s letter started out pretty harshly:
Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
he said, “if your God is telling you that you won’t be defeated by me, let me tell you that’s a lie. You can’t trust your God - He’s deceiving you.”
this isn’t a new message. Satan and the world have tried to convince others that God is it who he says he is since the beginning of time. And people choose to believe this lie. Look at Houston Texans running back Adrian Foster, who defended his choice to be an atheist this way: “everybody always says the same thing. You have to have faith. That’s my whole thing, faith isn’t enough for me.”
The enemy can say what he wants to say, but the final word will always be gods, and in his word we read:
And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee:
For thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The Promise of God
The Promise of God
Sennacherib also wanted to make Hezekiah doubt that God‘s promise to deliver Judah from Assyria could be trusted. he wanted Hezekiah to believe God it didn’t mean what He said.
this tactic sounds pretty similar to how Satan tempted Eve in the garden of Eden, doesn’t it? In genesis two, Kara told Adam not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
but in genesis three, Satan also got Eve to question what God said:
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
satan was saying, “Are you sure that’s what God said? I don’t know if that’s true…” in the world does the same thing today when it comes to God‘s word. When’s the last time you heard someone challenge the Bibles accuracy and relevance? It happens all the time. People will try to get you to believe the Bible is old and outdated or just plain wrong. Some of their arguments sound valid enough to get you to question God‘s word. Let me tell you, that’s a mistake. The Bible is reliable and trustworthy. The Bible has been true prophetically, historically, and scientifically.
Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
God is not a man, that he should lie;
Neither the son of man, that he should repent:
Hath he said, and shall he not do it?
Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Every word of God is pure:
He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: