July 23, 2018
"The one who scatters has come up against you.
Man the fortress, watch the road;
Strengthen your back, summon all your strength."
Nahum 2:1
This was the word of the Lord against Nineveh. Although a city can't stand against the Lord if He wants to destroy them, He still said to "watch the road." Why? Because this is what you do when you're under attack. Roads are access points. In this context, to watch the road means to look for what's coming--particularly a coming threat.
Today, we need to "watch the road." We need to look for coming threats so we can prepare to deal with them. There may be some things coming that look innocent enough, but are not--they are a real threat to the future of Christian living in America. We take our stand for the Lord and His ways now even though we know one day He will return and set it straight. Just because we know persecution is coming, doesn't mean we don't fight for truth to prevail. He doesn't want us to sit back and do nothing until He comes. We are His ambassadors. We have work to do until He returns. We are His soldiers. We do battle courageously against our enemy, remembering of course who the real enemy is.
On the other hand, not everything that looks like a threat may actually be a threat. We may not like everything that comes our way, and we may not agree with everything we see 'trending', but we need discernment to know what are the real threats to perpetuating our Christian faith, and what is simply an annoyance, or a minor difference of opinion or taste. We can waste a lot of time and energy on fighting against something that isn't that big of a threat at all. And our enemy knows that if he can get us worked up and angry, we may lose our fruit--love, joy, peace, kindness, self-control, patience etc--and end up working against what the Lord is doing instead of for it.
I encourage you to ask the Lord what are the real threats on your road. What are the things He wants you to prepare for and take a stand against? What are the things that, even though they annoy you, they are not worth wasting your time and energy on? And remember while watching for the threats, don't forget to spend more time watching the Lord, beholding Him so you continue to be conformed into His image!
Thank you for your diligence to answer America's call to prayer!
Rose Murdock
P.S. I'm going to be taking time off from America's Call to Prayer for the month of August as I do some travelling and re-evaluating the direction the Lord wants me to take for the next season. So there will be no emails sent out in August. Please continue to pray for the elections!
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