Isaiah 54:17: “‘No weapon formed against you shall prosper, / And every tongue which rises against you in judgment / You shall condemn. / This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, / And their righteousness is from Me,’ / Says the LORD.”

September 17th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Here we find a promise from God that He is still honoring to this day, though sometimes it can be difficult to see its fulfillment. Every time we read a news report about believers being killed for their faith, it seems like the enemy is winning, as though the weapons formed against them are defeating them. It is in those moments that we must do as Proverbs tells us: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart / And lean not on your own understanding” (3:5). Though earthly weapons can destroy these fleshly tents our souls currently live in, there is no earthly weapon that can destroy our relationship with God or separate us from His love and care.

Over and over again history has recorded that when persecution comes and tries to destroy believers, the result of that persecution is in fact strengthened faith, not defeated faith. To this day persecution causes faith to spread. And it isn’t just the faith of those directly involved that is strengthened, but that of all believers around the world who are watching. We are told in Acts 8:4, “Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.” God’s ambassadors are constantly being placed in important places to be both strengthened personally and to bring God’s hope to others.

Late in WWII, two British soldiers, a Scottish seminary professor and a Scottish chaplain, bailed out of an airplane behind German lines. They were caught and put in a Nazi prison camp where American and British POWs were separated by a high, wire fence. They put the professor in the American barrack and the chaplain in the British barrack. Unknown to the guards, the Americans had a little homemade radio and were getting news from the outside. Every day the 2 men would meet at the fence, and in the ancient Gaelic language, which the Germans couldn’t understand, the professor would tell the chaplain what he had heard on the radio. One day, news came over the radio that the German high command had surrendered and the war was over. The professor took the news to his friend, and then watched him disappear into the British barrack. Moments later he heard a roar of celebration. Life in the camp was transformed. Men walked around singing and shouting, waving at the guards, even laughing at the dogs. When the German guards finally heard the news 3 nights later, they fled into the dark, leaving the gates unlocked. The next morning, British and American soldiers walked out as free men. Yet they had actually been free 3 days earlier. We are like those men in the prison camp; the war is over because Jesus has won. However, we must wait out the remaining days until we experience our complete freedom in heaven.

“LORD, please cleanse us from our sins so that we can be used by You today.”