Exodus chapter 14

14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.
31 And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

I love verse 14 "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." What a comfort those words bring because it is not about us, about our strength, about how long we can carry on. It is all about God, about His power, His glory, His great all encompassing ,all forgiving love.

When the Israelites could see the Egyptian army bearing down on them they forgot all about the ten plagues, about how God had miraculously rescued them from Egypt. The urgency of the situation blinded them to the power of God in their midst. They allowed the spirit of defeat, of oppression, to return and started whingeing and whining to Moses. It seems to me that they had been slaves for so long, they had become accustomed to doing what they were told, when they were told and had lost the ability to think for themselves. They waited for instructions, orders, guidance from others, and panicked until they knew what to do.

Isn't that like us today? We try and rely on our own strength, our own abilities, instead of turning to the one who has more power than we could ever dream of. We allow the spirit of defeat, the spirit of despair, the spirit of unbelief into our lives, telling ourselves that the task is too hard, that we have done enough, that surely God couldn't expect that of us, that there is no way we can do that. We try and do it all ourselves and then , when we fail, start berating ourselves for our uselessness.

Like the Israelites, we need to remember that we are not alone. We serve a great and might God, and nothing for Him is impossible. Jesus had told us to cast all our burdens on him, so why do we carry on being a martyr, trying to manage by ourselves?
We have been having some wonderful teaching these past few days at our church, and this chapter seems particularly relevant at this time. We need to put on our spiritual armour each and every single day, not just on the odd occasions when we remember. The enemy is out there, he is real, and he has many, many helpers. He is out to destroy as many of us as he can, to turn us away from God, away from Jesus, to make us deny God, to deny our faith. But we are not alone. We are a church, a body of believers, so we need to share what is happening to us with other believers and ask for prayer. It is not a sign of weakness to ask for prayer, it is not a case of your needs or my needs being less important than those of others, because in God's eyes, each one of us is unique, special, loved. If you have children, would you care any the less for one of them? I have four children, and I love each one of them dearly. I could not choose between them, I try to treat each of them the same, but I most certainly do not love one of them more or less than the others.

It is the same with God. He loves every single one of us and we are each so very important to Him. He doesn't love Tom or Joan or Fred more. He doesn't answer the prayers of Jane or Sue or David in preference to your prayers, my prayers. It's not a case of only the most "holy" people being loved by God, because god sees right into the hearts of every single one of us, He sees us warts and all, and loves us despite how mean and nasty and horrible we can be. Nothing we can do will make God love us more and nothing we can do will make Him love us less.

Do you think He has left us here on earth powerless? That we only have our wits to battle against the enemy? Or maybe you think that there is no such thing as spiritual warfare, that angels and demons are just symbolic in the bible and that when bad things happen, it’s just life?

Yes, sometimes, it is just life, but many occasions, it is really the enemy, the devil, seeking to thwart God's plans, to turn us away from following God's path and to start us walking on the road to hell.

We need to put on our spiritual armour each and every day - take a look at Ephesians 6:13-17 and work through the armour, placing it on your body as you say or think the words. Pray in the Spirit at all times and on all occasions. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. The enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Trust in God, turn to Him and do not be too proud or demeaning to ask for prayer for yourself. Ask Jesus for help, after all, he did say that He would be with us until the end of the age, so we are never, ever alone. He has given us his Holy Spirit, we are indwelt by Him and just need to remember this. We have been given authority by Jesus to do everything he did and more, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against his church.

We just need to have faith, to trust in God and remember that the Lord will fight for us, we need only to be still.