With the Lord there is an escape route when the darkness of the day presses in on us.  Like in the time two angels visited Lot where they personally escorted him, his wife and two daughters out of the evil city that was about to be annihilated by God’s judgment; Gen 19. We must not back down and give in to the demands that evil voices and threats of today put on us and the only way we will overcome them is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The kind of faith is not merely a ‘ya I believe’ but rather, ‘since I believe I will not bow to another, nor fear anyone but the Lord God Almighty.’  One faith is vague and casual while the other is personal and intentional.  Only God who is greater than anything that would come against us can escort us through such an evil hour.  God is our hope, our refuge, shield and strength and if He is for us who can come against us?  Psalm 91 is for us today and I recommend we study it. Nothing can separate us from His protective Hand, except one thing:  unbelief.  When we stumble around in unbelief we wander away from the Lord and His dwelling place into dangerous ground.  It is dangerous because it is Satan’s turf.  What does unbelief look like? 

• Questioning the Word and what it says. 
• Doubting the Word and not taking it literally making it more metaphoric and objective. 
• Taking up stands against the validity of the Word and its origins calling it men’s writing not Gods.
• Not acting on the Word in what it says. 
• Believing what we see, touch and is physical over what we cannot see (God)
• Trusting our feelings over what the Word says
• Letting the fear of man be what guides us rather than a fear of God
• Not committing ourselves to the Lord in full surrender of our lives

When we walk in unbelief we may not even know it!  For this reason our day to day walk with the Lord must be absolutely intentional where we take nothing for granted.  I am convinced that many of us go through unnecessary conflicts, grief with problems that come not through being persecuted for our faith, but because we swing the door wide open (through unbelief) so the devil can come on in and do what he does best – create confusion and disturb the peace! 

We each have a target on our back the minute we say we believe in Christ Jesus, but that does not mean we have to be easy prey for him! 

Our day to day business as Christians is to make sure we are blameless so the devil has nothing on us, then we can serve the Lord in the power, grace and glory He grants all who are His.  If our striving is because we still stumble over our flesh and sin we cannot be effective witnesses for the world to see. 

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;  that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;  strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;  giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.  He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,  in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled  in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—  if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, Col 1:9-14, 21-23a