Prayer For Perseverance

“Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings.” (Ps 140:4 AV)

 

As I read this, I didn’t feel particularly threatened by my physical well-being.  As time marches on and we get ever closer to the appearance of our LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ, this may change.  But for now, as long as we honor the authority over us in as much as our conscience allows, we can live in relative peace.  I know.  This may change rapidly and we are anticipating it somewhat.  When I read this verse, I was not thinking of any personal and physical threat which faced my life.  Rather, I was thinking of all the temptation that surrounds us on any given day.  Unless we remain in lockdown with our electronic entertainment shut off, we are bombarded with temptations from those who want nothing to do with God.  It doesn’t matter how diligent we are to protect ourselves from the onslaught, it is all around us.  The world works together to overthrow the walk of the saved.  They may not coordinate their efforts in some mass conspiracy.  But it is so common and prevalent, it is like a wave of evil crashing around our storm walls.  The prayer above is one of protection.  Protection from all that would cause the saint to fall.

There was, and may still be, a made-for-tv athletic event that was all the rage.  The name of the program was Wipe Out.  Contestants would compete for the best times.  The obstacle course had many moving parts.  There were stationary impediments.  There were things that moved.  The athlete usually started by running up a steep ramp.  Then he had to jump on and over giant golf balls on a tee.  Almost always this resulted in a dive.  When they came out of the water, they might have had to traverse a ledge with a wall attached.  Out of the wall flung boxing gloves on poles at random intervals and heights.  Into the pool, they went.  Then they had to jump from a stationary platform to a moving object, to another moving object, and onto the stationary platform that was the finish line.  There was a version of this where the remaining competitors advanced to a new course.  There were some levels when all the competitors competed in the same challenge, together.  Sort of like the giant merry-go-round where the bars were stationary and the platform spun.  The bars would knock you off into the water.  The whole point of the show was to laugh at failure.  When someone awkwardly bounced off the giant golf balls or got punched right in the gut, it was funny.  The fall was far more entertaining than the victory.

This is what the Christian life is like.  Countless challenges and temptations are all designed for one thing only.  To trip us up.  Romans chapter one speaks to this.  Some are entertained first by their own failures.  Then they take even more satisfaction in the fall over others.  They are not content to live in the sewer alone.  They want as many as will, to join them.  This is what we must face.  This is what we must fight.  This cannot be overcome by our own strength.  Only by the ministry of the Holy Spirit can we hope to have any success.  He can face those challenges and give us the resolve to say ‘no’.  He can bring to remembrance scripture verses and give us the resolve to fight on.  The victory is ours.  But it will not come easy.  Our writer does not ask for the removal of these adversaries.  Rather, he seeks protection from them.  We should remove all avenues of temptation that are within our power to do so.  But we cannot remove all.  They will not relent.  They will not cease.  But greater is He who is in me than he that is in the world.