Chase Them With Your Fierce Storm!

As a fire burns a forest and as a flame sets mountains ablaze, chase them with your fierce storm; terrify them with your tempest.  Utterly disgrace them until they submit to your name, O Lord.

Let them be ashamed and terrified forever.  Let them die in disgrace.  Then they will learn that you alone are called the Lord, that you alone are the Most High, supreme over all the earth.

-Psalm 83:14-18 NLT-

In the light of this past weekend with a certain movie that has just opened to the public, and the direction it seems this world is heading, it is time to pray for those who just don't get it.  It is time to pray for the people who know God and choose to look the other direction.  Pray for those who deny there is a God even though they have seen evidence of His presence all around them.  Christians everywhere are being persecuted for having a belief system that follows the Ancient Words of God.  We are misunderstood when we stand on our foundation and choose to live by God's laws.  Some are mocked and called names, accused of not having Godly love when they don't agree with with the world, and put down by those who are searching for something more, something they can place their trust in, but often deny that the answer is God.  When we get tired of loving those who persecute us it is the very time we press on and keep praying for those who need Truth in their life.  Let's face it, there are some people who just cannot hear the love that we are sharing through our actions and words.  They are so dead set on their opinions that even if God is speaking directly through us with a gentle and quiet spirit the evil spirits controlling their life will be threatened by us.  Everything we say gets twisted and we are blamed and called a hypocrite and every other name in the book.  Sometimes in these desperate moments, when we see that people just don't want anything to do with knowing God and hearing Truth, all we can do is pray.  But you say it's hard to pray for someone who is persecuting you and hurting you, even dragging you through the mud.  How can I pray for someone who hates me and doesn't want anything to do with me?  I say, how can we not?  

Sometimes the only thing we can do is pray for someone.  The scripture above is for combatting God's enemies.  I would rather call it combatting satan because often times our fight is not with human flesh but with the unseen rulers and dark forces of this world (Ephesians 6:2).  We may see a person and be angry with him or her but in reality we need to fight for that person while he or she is being controlled by worldly spirits, especially if the person is a Christian.  So we begin reciting God's Word and praying the hard realities that must happen in order for him or her to see Truth.  Sometimes people need to be humbled by adversity before they will look up to see the Lord.  Sometimes we need  to pray that a person lose everything so that he or she is left with only God.  We want them to see their wrong through God's eyes and come face to face with who they have become so that they will turn to find healing and help from a loving, waiting God.  Many times it takes defeat before a person can find true victory in Jesus Christ.............and so we pray!

Knock the breath right out of them, so they're gasping for breath, gasping, "God".  Bring them to the end of their rope, and leave them there dangling, helpless.  Then they'll learn your name: "God," the one and only High God on earth. 

-Psalm 83:15-18  MSG-