This post is continued from yesterday. Today we have more from Bob Vincent on prayer and on health and wealth:

As believers living under the New Testament, we are called to battle every bit as much as David.  But unlike David, our weapons are not sword and bow.  “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

The Christian must never look at dark circumstances and assume that God has foreordained some dreadful thing for us and those we love.  On the contrary, we are called to pray and fight; we are called to plead the promises of God, trusting in our Sovereign God to deliver us from the malice of Satan as we resist the evil one, firm in our faith.  We are just as much in battle as David ever was, with a most deadly foe.  “For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe.  His craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate.  On earth is not his equal” (Martin Luther’s paraphrastic hymn of Psalm 46, “A Mighty Fortress Is our God”).

Given the secularist prejudice that has numbed the minds even of many Bible-believing Christians, we must beware that we do not rule out the evil supernatural forces that are pitted against us in the ordinary circumstances of life.  God is sovereign over all of life, to be sure, but underneath God’s sovereign purpose, a real battle is still raging between Christ and Satan.  We face three real and deadly enemies: the world, the flesh and the devil. And as we live our lives in this world, we must take seriously the real power of Satan.  This is explored in a sermon that I preached the Sunday after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, right after Sandy and I returned from hauling people out of the Super Dome, “A Trip to Job’s House.”  But the Bible takes natural circumstances seriously as well as the supernatural battle going on for our planet, even though all things are under God’s sovereignty.

When we encounter dreadful things, we must fight them using the Spiritual weapons God has given us (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).  We must pray and take our stand.  If we have loved ones who have gone astray, turning their backs on the Lord Jesus, we should never adopt a fatalistic attitude, twisting the teaching about God’s sovereignty into some heartless fatalism:  “God if it be thy will, save my child.”  What nonsense!  Scripture reveals God’s revealed will, and God’s revealed will is the salvation of our loved ones.  God’s sovereignty is never revealed so that we adopt an attitude of stoical resignation; it is so that we will fight, confident that the Lord is beside us, as quoted above:  “The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name” (Exodus 15:3).

(to be continued)