Listening for His Victory!

"My people…if only you would listen and do as I say! I, the LORD, would quickly defeat your enemies with My mighty power.” (Psalms 81:13-14, CEV) One of the hardest things in this journey of faith is practicing daily consistency in submitting (yielding over / giving up) everything to God. James, who was one to never mince words, was clear when he penned God’s spirit-led command – “Submit (‘surrender’ CEV) yourselves … to God!” (James 4:7) Yet this is one area in most of our lives where we struggle to fully give up that old sinful nature of independence – we still have the inclination to taste the power of self-made wisdom, although in our hearts we know it is a fruitless choice. In one of my daily devotionals, Chris Tiegreen writes of this lurking quest for self-made power, “Why are we so captivated with our decision-making power? Why, even when we know that a sense of autonomy is Satan’s specialty and the root of our sin, do we insist on maintaining little pieces of it in various corners of our lives? Whey, when God tells us one thing and our internal compulsions tell us another, do we often choose the compulsions? What does that say about our trust in God? … When we choose our own will over God’s, we’re mistrusting Him and trusting ourselves.” That is what submitting is all about … the complete yielding of our will, our desires, our plans, our ’wisdom’ to His Will, His desires, His plans and His divine wisdom! When we do this, CHANGE will come … not in God, but in our own hearts/lives! In a world filled with independent thinkers (aka ‘know it all’ers’), those who would bend (yield / submit) their knees and hearts before God’s divine truth will show a difference that the world will see. Malachi 3:18 declares, “Then everyone will once again see the difference between those who obey Me by doing right and those who reject Me by doing wrong.” (CEV) In this new year, let’s really work on our ‘listening’ skills to the living words of God– because with our obedience to this command comes a powerful promise from the Lord …”the quick defeat our enemies with His mighty power” – now that’s an offer I believe most of us should find difficult to refuse! As Matthew 11:15 declares, to “he who has ears, let him hear!” …Selah!
Today's CCM video can be viewed upon clicking the title of the song, "I'm Letting Go" by Francesca Battistelli.
A special note - typically the Lord leads me to a CCM song after I pen His words each morning through a search of related themes / lyrics, but this morning came in a special way - "as I was just listening" to the online CCM radio station in the background and at the exact moment I was finishing today's devotion. Thank you Lord ... You are so GOOD! :O)