Week 23: Day 5

Intro: Hello, my name is Damilola, welcome to today's Orbit devotional.

Bible: I'm going to be reading Psalm 21, and a few different verses from it. So verses 1-2, 8-9 and 13.

The king rejoices in your strength, Lord. How great is his joy in the victories you give!
You have granted him his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips.

Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes. When you appear for battle, you will burn them up as in a blazing furnace.

Be exalted in your strength, Lord; we will sing and praise your might.

Thoughts: When was the last time you won something? I don't know about you, But for me, winning feels awesome, fell on top of the world. Whenever I'm in something, be it a quiz, or a prize, or a competition. I'm here to win. And David is experiencing a moment like that in this psalm. And so, he writes this psalm to God. David experiences many battles in his life. And many of the Psalms, he is asking God for help in these battles. But in this one, he's thanking God for the help that he has received. And it's so fascinating to watch what David says here, he doesn't say, I shout with joy, because I have the victory. He says, I shot with joy, because you have given me victory, yes, David has had work to do in these battles. But he recognises, ultimately that the key person to be proud of in this moment is not himself. It's God because it's God has given him the victory.

And we come and we see that David has enemies. And they show you this, that you and I have enemies too. And they're not enemies that we need to go into physical battle with, like David did. But we do have enemies that we need to go into spiritual battle with. These enemies are the devil, the accuser of God's people who is against all of God's purposes in the world, the powers of darkness, and our own sinful desires. These things are our enemies, because they try and keep us away from the life that God has. For us, God is promising us life. And yet these things are trying to lead us into death.

So, we also have enemies, and we need to know how to fight these enemies. And we don't do this by getting guns, or by being really mean and nasty to certain people. We think are our enemies know we take up God's weapons, and we pray, and we hold on to his truth, to fight our enemies. And when we do this, we see that God gives us the victory. Ultimately, this is his battle. And yet, when we come to Him in prayer, in worship, and spending time with him every single day, we are giving these enemies less power. And we are clothing ourselves in the power that God gives, and living in light of his victory, the victory that Jesus already has won on the cross, and which we get to live into and live out of more and more as we come to him every single day.

And so, let's pray and thank God for this victory that He has won in Jesus. And let's ask him for help to live in light of that in this day.

Prayer: Lord God, thank You that You are the victorious one. And Lord Jesus, thank You that in your life, death and resurrection that you put to shame you put to death, the powers of the devil and of darkness and of sin. And yet Jesus as we continue to grapple with these things ahead of that moment of final victory, when our struggle with these things is no more I pray that You would help us to be clothed in the armour that you give us in your weapons of truth, of worship of prayer of faith, so that we can stand firm in your victory and not lose to the evil one. Thank you that you are with us and that you Long to give us victory every single day. Amen.

Challenge: And my challenge for you today is to go on to YouTube or Spotify, wherever you go to listen to music, and put on this song. The Victory is yours by Bethel Music. I think this is such a helpful song of capturing some of what I've just said about how we do have a spiritual battle. But it's all fine because Jesus has won. And all we need to do is stay close to him in the midst of that.

Outro: Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful day. Goodbye.