PSALM 120
1 In my distress I cried to the LORD, And He heard me.
2 Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips And from a deceitful tongue.
3 What shall be given to you, Or what shall be done to you, You false tongue?
4 Sharp arrows of the warrior, With coals of the broom tree!
5 Woe is me, that I dwell in Meshech, That I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
6 My soul has dwelt too long With one who hates peace.
7 I am for peace; But when I speak, they are for war.
There is a war taking place. All around the world day in and day out there is a war happening somewhere. It is sad but this is true that the worst war is not taking place on the outside of people’s lives but on the inside. It is a spiritual war.
We live in an environment hostile to God. It is becoming more hostile. The church must be crying out to God for deliverance. What once was a nation whose eyes were turned toward God is now turning its back to Him. A people who once were excited about gathering to worship God are either staying away from the gathering or looking for a cheap form of worship focused on self instead of God.
Christianity now lives in a hostile environment. James 4:1–4 James writes:
4 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Unfortunately, and this is a general statement, there is a war happening in the church today. Instead of being a place of love and peace focused upon God many come to church to have their own selfish, self-centered, “his majesty the baby” catered to. (Sorry, but this is what I see in America today.) When the church once again becomes a sanctuary of true godly worship then we will see a turnaround in life. Where does it begin? It must be instilled in the heart of the pastor of the church. It must be proclaimed from the pulpit. No longer cater to bringing multitudes to the worship center to focus on self. Bring people to God’s house to focus upon God and worship Him and not self.
Hebrews 10:25
25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.