“We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the LORD grant all your requests.”
~ Psalm 20:5
Hi James and Ellen,
As you wake up from a night’s sleep, what is the first thing that you do each morning? Do you thank your Father God for the good night’s sleep that He just gave you? Do you thank your Father God for the new day that He is giving you to enjoy? Do you thank your Father God for the good health that He is allowing you to have? Do you thank your Father God for the dad and ma who He chose to be your earthly guardians? Do you ask your Father God to arm you with strength to fight the wars that you will find yourselves in throughout the day? You are constantly fighting battles that your Father God has allowed to be brought into your lives for you to fight. You are constantly in need of your Father God’s help to help you win these battles. Your grandpaa is very sure that you do not always do what your dad and/or ma ask you to do. Each time that you do not do something that your dad and/or ma has asked you to do, you have lost an obedience battle. Each time that you complain about not having something that another kid has, you have lost a being content with what you have battle. Each time that you cheat while taking a test or doing an assignment, you have lost an integrity battle. Each time that you put making a lot of money and having a lot of things before everything else – especially your relationship with your Father God, you have lost a not needing to have earthly possessions battle. Each time that you put having power, prestige and position over other kids and guys and gals, you have lost being a servant for your Father God battle.
David fought in real battles. David scribed a psalm song to his Father God that he would sing as a prayer to Him each time that he was getting ready to go into battle. Psalm 20 is the psalm song that David while he was the king over God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, scribed to sing with God’s specially chosen guys and gals as a prayer to their Father God right before he and his Israelite people group’s army would go into battle against a neighboring enemy’s guys who were always marauding their area of land – such as the Philistine people group’s guys. Instead of putting their trust in their chariot corps, the Israelite people group’s army genuinely put their total trust in their Father God to help them win their battles. Asking for your Father God’s help is what your Father God expects that you will want to do when you are struggling with a stressful situation, facing a moral and/or an ethical temptation and having to make a life decision. Your Father God is permitting life battles to take place constantly in your lives. Your Father God is always teaching you to trust in Him for the victory in a life battle that you are finding yourselves having to fight. Your Father God knows that in order for you to learn to trust in Him to help you win the life battles that you are finding yourselves having to fight, that you are going to need to lose some of the life battles to know what the empty feeling feels like when you lose in a moral, ethical and/or spiritual battle. As you become older, you will have peers wanting you to do very irresponsible things – such as taking illicit drugs, getting involved in compromising relationships, turning your back on local church fellowships and conforming personal lifestyles around the music and mores of the moment. Your grandmaa and grandpaa hope and pray that you will have peers who will always encourage you to ask your Father God for His help to help you to always do what He would expect you to do – such as refusing to experiment using drugs, deciding to be around only guys and gals who value purity, making a local church fellowship your second home and being nonconformists who do not want vulgar music, gross verbiage and unsuitable dress defining who you are.
You are not in a physical battle today in which you may die. You are in a cultural battle today that has the potential of killing your ethical, moral and spiritual values. A mutated, embedded cultural standard here today in the United States says that it is completely legitimate for a guy, gal or kid to tell lies if the lies help the guy, gal or kid to achieve desired results – if the desired results fit within a dummied down personal narrative of norms and mores. A political party today in the United States has assumed this now perceived, legitimized right to lie as their primary banner carrier to remove a second political party from the position of power that this second political party has. It is now seventeen years later as of this editing and the same political party is still discrediting their political party foe. Deceit, disingenuous and hypocrisy are all lie enablers. For a society that was underpinned in July 1776 in a trust in a Heavenly Father, the integrity pillars of this society are now being constantly blasted with dishonesty, immorality and decadence. This rare society that was founded by dedicated Christ-followers as the United States of America today is being taken over by independent groups of self-seeking and self-serving guys and gals who are coalescing their agendas to defeat the life principals of the guys and gals who want to live as Christ-followers. You are faced with choices – that are battles, every single day on which side to join – the side of good or the side of evil. Every single day you are faced with the choice of choosing the battle side that your Father God is on or of choosing the battle side that the enemy of your Father God is on. If you choose your Father God’s side – which is the side of good and righteousness, you will be able to sing – as David and his army sang, the words that are found in verse 5, “We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the LORD grant all your requests.” How do you feel when something goes wrong for you? How do you feel when something goes right for you? Just as David knew that His Father God was in control of his life battles, you need to pull a David.
Psalm 20 (517)