Whatever is causing fear and anxiety or confusion for you today (be it health related, wars and rumors of wars, hearts of men waxing cold, things that are completely out of our control, self pity, evil schemes of men, or hardships of every kind leading to inward unrest), can I encourage you with the encouragement that God speaks to me?

Behold Jesus INSTEAD of beholding the enemy.

The likes of Daniel, David, Paul and Jesus didn’t overcome by beholding the enemy but by beholding The Lord! And in their beholding, they overcame fear, doubts, failures, hunger, pain, ungodly government, trials of many kinds, and even death.

When our eyes stay fixed on the Author and Finisher of our faith, we bear the fruits of His righteousness, His strength, His peace and joy. Yet when we behold the enemy of our faith in his many forms, we bear the fruit of his fear, inward unrest and every ungodly characteristic.

The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy us. But the Savior of mankind has come to give us life.

Start beholding the Author of life who has prepared a table before us in the presence of our enemies (psalm 23). That table is between us and our enemy. We can look Jesus, who sits across from us, in the eyes. Or we can look over His shoulder at the enemies that surround us. If we will sit and dine with the Lord at the table He has already prepared for us, we will find all we lack at any moment right there in Christ. His promises are there. His fellowship is there. His comfort and grace are served abundantly there. We bring our faith, even if only as small as a mustard seed, and we watch Him move the mountains of adversity.

Whatever is weighing us down today, it’s no match for our Good Shepherd. He has provided all we need in Himself! Let us commit to beholding Him in every situation and watch fear, anxiety and all the rest, fall away as we rest at the table of the Lord❤️.

PSALM 27

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?
² When the wicked came against me
To eat up my flesh,
My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.
³ Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I will be confident.

⁴ One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.
⁵ For in the time of trouble
He shall hide me in His pavilion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle
He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock.

⁶ And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me;
Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

⁷ Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice!
Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
⁸ When You said, “Seek My face,”
My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
⁹ Do not hide Your face from me;
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not leave me nor forsake me,
O God of my salvation.
¹⁰ When my father and my mother forsake me,
Then the Lord will take care of me.

¹¹ Teach me Your way, O Lord,
And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
¹² Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries;
For false witnesses have risen against me,
And such as breathe out violence.
¹³ I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.

¹⁴ Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!