When the Lord is in your Favour

I was at our church's weekly prayer meeting recently. The theme of the meeting was "When the Lord is in my favour
the devil loses direction".

In the holy bible, there are many accounts of the men and women of God who were persecuted for serving the Lord.

There is the story of Daniel who was thrown in the den of lions after he defied a thirty-day decree banning anyone from praying to any other god apart from the king.
"So the king gave the order, and Daniel was brought and thrown into a den of lions. The king consoled Daniel by saying, "Your God whom you continually serve will rescue you!"" (Daniel 6:16).

The Lord surely rescued Daniel from the lions which paid no attention to his presence in their den .

There is a story of the prophet Jeremiah who was thrown in a dungeon and later released because the Lord was with him.

King Zedekiah was warned by Jeremiah to evacuate the city before the arrival of the Babylonian army. The king was stubborn and did not listen to Jeremiah's advice. Instead, Jeremiah was thrown into a deep well full of mud to die, for demoralising the defending army.

Jeremiah was rescued by the Lord after an Ethiopian court official , Ebed Melech, appealed to the king to release him.

The king was later captured and tortured by the Babylonian army.

(Jeremiah 38 , 1 - 15
Jeremiah 39 , 15 - 18)

When the Lord speaks to your heart , do not be swayed by human influence.

In our own lives we encounter many challenges where human reasoning does not help at all.

I recall one experience when I was very young. There was famine in the land after the heavy rains of 1957.

People were forced to eat all sorts of edible items such as tubers and maize chaff.

The following planting reason, there was debate whether the maize seed that was available should be planted or be eaten.

A lot of people decided to eat their seed in order to avert imminent starvation.

Those who planted their maize seed, got a good harvest the following year. Hunger persisted amongst those who decided to eat their seed.

Perseverence in trusting the Lord in all situations, is like one taking a decision to plant the only grain available amidst hunger and starvation.

When the Lord is in your favour, the devil loses direction !