THE
POWER TO STAND
BREAD
28 You, O
Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God
turns my darkness into light. 29 With your help I can advance against a troop; with my
God I can scale a wall. 30 As for
God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord
is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. 31 For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our
God? 32 It is
God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. 33 He makes my feet like the feet
of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. Psalms 18:28-33 (NIV)
19 The
Sovereign Lord is my strength; he
makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. Habakkuk 3:19 (NIV)
13 Moses
answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the
deliverance the Lord will bring
you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:13-14 (NIV)
17 You
will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see
the deliverance the Lord will give
you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to
face them tomorrow, and the Lord
will be with you. 2 Chronicles 20:17
(NIV)
4 Who
are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls.
And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. Romans 14:4 (NIV)
12 So, if
you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! 13 No temptation has seized you
except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be
tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also
provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 (NIV)
58 Therefore,
my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves
fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is
not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58 (NIV)
13 Be on
your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. 14 Do everything in love. 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (NIV)
1 It is
for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves
be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians
5:1 (NIV)
10 Finally,
be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God
so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against
the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly realms. 13 Therefore
put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be
able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6:10-13 (NIV)
BUTTER
“This is a world on information overload and our souls are obese with data that doesn’t matter, but who slowly savours Living Bread? This is the nation and the generation that is gluttonous for Google, starved for social streams on screens, but who is hungry for God?......Why be fat with the world and anemic for Christ who took nails so you’d have the iron to stand?” Ann Voskamp
“Faith raises the soul above the difficulty, straight to God Himself, and enables one to stand still. We gain nothing by our restless and anxious efforts….It is therefore true wisdom, in all times of difficulty and perplexity, to stand still – to wait only upon God, and He will assuredly open a way for us.” C.H. Mackintosh
“To learn strong faith is to endure great trials. I have learned my faith by standing firm amid severe testings.” George Mueller
“If Maximilian Kolbe could stand in Auschwitz and write ‘Be tranquil — because the good God is everywhere and provides for everything with love’ — is there ever really anything that should make one lose tranquility? It could be like a song for all the doubters and anxious: The good God is everywhere and provides for everything with love.” Ann Voskamp
“Despair whispers, ‘Lie down and die; give it all up.’... But, however much Satan may urge this course upon you, you cannot follow it if you are a child of God. His divine fiat has bid thee go from strength to strength, and so thou shalt, and neither death nor hell shall turn thee from thy course. What if for a while thou art called to stand still; yet this is but to renew thy strength for some greater advance in due time.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“O
God, never suffer us to think that we can stand by ourselves, and not need
Thee.” John
Donne
“Redemption
does not only look back to Calvary. It
looks forward to the freedom in which the redeemed stand.” Leon
Morris
“When
Christians stand up for righteousness and justice, they evidence the power of
the living God.” Charles Colson
“When captivity is
led captive, the Eternal God is the refuge of his people...Our sins which
pursued us so hotly have been drowned in the depths of the Savior's Blood. They
sank to the bottom like stones, the depths have covered them, there is not one,
no, not one of them left, and we, standing upon the shore in safety, can shout
in triumph over our drowned sins, ‘Sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed
gloriously, and all our iniquities hath he cast into the midst of the sea.’” Charles
Spurgeon
“We
don’t normally like being on the bottom.
It’s just not the position we generally pick. It goes against our flesh. Yet, in the Bible’s economy you stoop to
rise, you lower and God elevates.
Therefore, rock bottom appears the perfect place to simply look up and
the perfect time to begin building upon the solid foundation of the Rock of
Christ. Often stripped of our dearest
Delilah’s we are not too dissimilar to the returning prodigal. We have nothing but our will to bring – do we
really ever have anything else? And
Jesus says tenderly, ‘Come’. On Him you
can depend. On Him you can count. On Him you can trust. He turns away no one. He will never let the righteous fall or blow
away for that matter. His grip is firm
and secure. Much akin to a young mother
grabbing her two year old in busy traffic and yet so infinitely more. He dearly loves His children and He always
causes them to stand because He is faithful and able to cause us to stand – no
matter what wind blows.” BHY
HEART
SAVOR
- · God enables me to stand on the heights.
- · God enables me to stand firm in His will mature and fully assured.
- · God enables me to stand no matter the circumstances.
