The Lord is my strength and my shield;
Psalm 28:7-8
in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults,
and with my song I give thanks to him.
8 The Lord is the strength of his people;
he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
Lots of people are experiencing bad effects from the lockdown that many have experienced due to government mandates in an attempt to control COVID-19. Fortunately, it is beginning to look like we are seeing the end of this plague in our midst. This week the governor of Texas opened up the state 100% from any restrictions on his citizens. Other governors appear to be ready to do the same soon.
Meanwhile, lots of negative psychological effects have been reported. Of course, our economy has been hurt as a nation by the lockdown, and at a more personal level, many small business owners were not able to sustain their businesses through the lockdown. They are now out of business and many of them will never come back. Such loss is a major source of stress for those affected.
The last few weeks I began to experience out-of-the-ordinary physical tiredness. I checked myself out and decided I didn’t have any sickness that was dragging me down. I am fortunate to be able to operate my business with little effort due to a wonderful back office support system so I spend only a few hours per week working my business. (Trust me, that only comes after years of very hard work, so it didn’t come easy.) Most of my time these days is invested in ministry work. I have several meetings per week with men I am discipling/mentoring as well as prayer and mutual encouragement groups I participate in as we pursue the development of a disciple-making movement in North San Diego County. So, I am fairly busy all the time.
After some consideration and prayer, I decided that my unusual tiredness and loss of motivation was nothing but an attack from the enemy (Satan or one of his minions). So, how did I combat this attack? I want to share what I have done and continue to do as a template for you when you find yourself under attack.
Prayer
First, I shared what was going on with my disciple-making community. These are people with whom I meet each week and we share how we are doing with our disciple-making efforts and pray for one another. There are times of sharing insights that the Holy Spirit gives us to help one another. And lots of rejoicing in what God is doing among our little kingdom army. It felt odd for me to be sharing my weakness and lack of motivation. I have not been in that position in my life, but as I did so, I could sense God working. Then the saints prayed for me in our Zoom meeting and as they did, one lady in particular prayed and I could physically feel a release in my body. God works when we pray together.
Going on the offensive
The second thing I did was to realize I needed to carry on with an ongoing offensive against hell. I can’t assume a one shot prayer meeting has resolved the onslaught of the enemy. So here is my ongoing battle strategy.
I am to renew my mind with God’s word.1 The enemy is a deceiver and a liar. His tactic is often to simply whisper in our ear his lies that are contrary to what God’s word says about us. I need to not accept his lies, remind him that I am God’s child and that he has nothing to do with me, therefore flee in Jesus’ name. Then I remind myself of the truth of what God says is true about me. I choose to believe God rather than the enemy.
I put together a list of about 16 passages of Scripture that speak of God being my strength. From that I distilled a short prayer or declaration that goes like this:
“I renounce the lie that I am too old and too weak to fulfill the ministry that God has ordained for me. I declare that I am strong in the Lord and the power of his might for the Lord God is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation.”
The weakness I had been experiencing and the loss of motivation have departed. I still do have to do battle on occasion, but God is the strength of my life. I encourage you to take a similar approach if you are feeling beat down by the last couple of years of turmoil, and the lockdown, and the onslaught from Social Media, and other national turmoil.
Here is the list of Scriptures I put together for myself.
Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying,
Exodus 15:1-3
“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider[a] he has thrown into the sea.
2 The Lord is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
3 The Lord is a man of war;
the Lord is his name.
Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Nehemiah 8:10
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
Psalm 18:1
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
Psalm 28:7-8
in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults,
and with my song I give thanks to him.
8 The Lord is the strength of his people;
he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
God is our refuge and strength,
Psalm 46:1
a very present help in trouble.
Awesome is God from his sanctuary;
Psalm 68:35
the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people.
Blessed be God!
My flesh and my heart may fail,
Psalm 73:26
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
Psalm 86:15-16
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me;
give your strength to your servant,
and save the son of your maidservant.
Seek the Lord and his strength;
Psalm 105:4
seek his presence continually!
The Lord is my strength and my song;
Psalm 118:14
he has become my salvation.
“Behold, God is my salvation;
Isaiah 12:2-3
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.”
3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to the Lord,
call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that his name is exalted.
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Isaiah 40:28-31
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
And to him who has no might he increases strength
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
Habakkuk 3:17-19
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14-19
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
Ephesians 6:10
I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service…
1 Timothy 1:12
Whatever your challenge is, whatever lies Satan has been putting into your mind, you can overcome them. Renew your mind to think like God thinks, in agreement with what God says about you, renounce the lies you have been hearing and maybe believing, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
I encourage you to take a few moments to listen to the Holy Spirit as he shows you any lies you have been believing. Then, dig in the word to discover what God says about you that is in contrast to the lies of the enemy. Then agree with God, don’t agree with devilish lies, or even down in the mouth, negative, human thoughts that do not manifest faith in God’s word. Jesus came to give us life and that more abundantly. Don’t settle for less.
