My girlfriends are fierce. They fight with me and I could not wage war against the enemy without them. I sure hope you have some precious friends because they are our fellow fighters on the spiritual battlefield against the enemy. You see, our friends (not just my girlfriends; our male friends, too) have been incredible prayer warriors for and with us during this spiritual battle we have had to fight.
One of my girlfriends, Betsy, sent a song to me one day and told me, “You need to listen to this.”
The song is, “Defender,” and it was written by John Paul Gentile, Rita Springer and Steffany Gretzinger.
A lot of times when someone sends a song for me to listen to or a verse for me to look up or a video to watch, I’ll make a, “mental note” and check it out later. That day, though, for some reason, I clicked on it and listened right away. I believe the reason was because Papa knew how desperately I needed the reminder. I was “sold” on the song with this opening verse, “You go before I know/That You’ve even gone to win my war/You come back with the head of my enemy/ You come back and You call it my victory…”
I want you to listen to that song and I want you to download it. Then, I want you to listen to it over and over and over until you believe it. Because that song is a beautiful description of our precious, Heavenly Father.
A frequent question I receive from your emails or messages is, “Why do you think evil people seem to win?” I wish I had an answer to immediately soothe troubled hearts who ask. But the long answer is, evil people seem to get away with their wicked ways, but they don’t win. If they don’t know Jesus, they are losing. Not winning.
When evil people, “get away with it,” those of us who desire to live a righteous life for God can find ourselves feeling helpless and hopeless; wondering how it is possible for corrupt/evil to win or advance. We want to believe in what is good; what is pure and justice. But when we see how the law can work more in the favor of criminals and less to protect victims, it can be more than just a little disheartening. We might feel like David going up against Goliath, when it comes to legal matters or fighting someone who only lies and seeks to win, rather than someone who seeks truth and justice.
Let me give you (what we now view as) a very funny example. Last year when Terry and I learned someone had stolen our credit card information and was using it to pay their bills, we had to separate our statements to compare the bills *we* had against the bills we were now paying for the person who committed credit card fraud. Because several of these companies were the same, we had to “prove” to many these were not our accounts. At one point when dealing with a vendor, the person on the other end of the phone told me, “I can see this account does not belong to you and your husband.” My reply, “Exactly. Can you tell us to whom it belongs, so we can provide that information to the police?” The vendor told me, “I’m really sorry. But we have to protect the privacy of this person.”
This call was on speaker, so Terry and I both had raised eyebrows and our mouths were hanging open. “You’re kidding,” we replied, simultaneously. “Someone stole our credit card and used it to pay their bills, and yet you are going to protect *their* privacy?”
If you are looking for a definition of irony, we found it. The police had to get a subpoena for several of these charges because, and I quote the vendor, “We have to protect their privacy.”
Never mind our privacy had not been protected when our funds were stolen and credit card bills skyrocketed! Finally at one point in that mess, we started laughing. I even suggested we find out where this person especially loved to shop so we could send a gift card. “Since we’re paying for everything else, we might as well throw in some perks.” I assure you, that was pure sarcasm.
Another example of injustice was an email I received from a precious lady who shared with me their house had been burglarized. When an alarm loudly went off, the burglar broke another window to make his full exit. In doing so, he cut his arm severely. After the police arrested him and he was out on bail; he hired an attorney and sued them for the injury he sustained on their property.
The audacity and level of evil with people? It floors us. I get it. We are fighting a spiritual battle against the enemy, every single day. Let me say that again … we are fighting a spiritual battle against the enemy, every single day. One more time … we are fighting a spiritual battle against the enemy, every single day. That is why it is imperative to fight our battles in prayer, and surround ourselves with members of God’s army; prayer warriors who build and lift us up!
But even though we are fighting an exhausting battle against evil, God is our great defender. He restores what is broken and stolen. He redeems the heartache we suffer and He is not oblivious to our cries for help.
I have found such comfort in re-reading Psalms. David had to cry out, time and time again, for God’s justice to prevail over the evil, manipulative lies from his enemies.
“Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with destruction. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue they speak deceit. Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins for they have rebelled against you.” - Psalm 5:10 (NIV)
I have shared that verse before but it is worth sharing again and again. The reason why is because of the note in my Bible. The note says, “The psalmists knew that he who has been wronged is not to right that wrong by his own hand but is to leave redress to the Lord, who says, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay” (Deuteronomy 32:35) I circled it and drew an arrow in the photo to draw your attention to the reminder.
I never want to become so consumed with the evil around us that I fail to trust in our living God. I never want to become so heartbroken by the judges who let the guy who attempted to murder a police officer spend only 1 to 4 years in prison (recent NYPD case) that I fail to remember God is the only judge who matters.
Our justice system often fails us, I know. Trust in Papa, dear friend. Trust in the justice of our living, loving, just God.