Marketplace Monastics

 

 

 

 

 

I hesitate to admit … how often I’m uncertain whether something in my life is a test to be endured, a temptation to be avoided, a tribulation to be overcome, or a torment to be undone.

 

Personally, and intellectually, I would hate it if I were going through something patiently that I was supposed to rebuke faithfully. I don’t want to call a temptation a tribulation; rather, it might be something I should destroy by the Word of the Lord.

 

It helps all the time to remember that in our lives we face not only circumstances and difficulties, but enemies and snares.

 

We face not only difficulties but enemies and snares, traps and detours and wicked tour guides, utterly devoid of mercy, truth, or conscience. Meanwhile, I don’t even like unhappy endings to the movies I watch!

 

Be that as it may, if they have destruction and shame as their end goal, and they do, I will pause, consider prayerfully; I will ask of God, for His wisdom comes generously and peaceably, not with an upbraiding finger wagging at me, scolding me for everything I’ve failed to get right so far. (James 1:5). If they want to see the ruin of those for whom I pray, I will believe my Lord when He says their ruin is determined, and I will pray accordingly.

 

 

 

The nations AND ALL THOSE WHO HATE THE ONES I LOVE have fallen into the pit they have dug;
    their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.  HOW I REJOICE IN YOUR SALVATION, FATHER, FOR MY LOVED ONES, FOR ________________, AND HOW I CELEBRATE YOUR TRIUMPH OVER EVIL!
¹⁶ The Lord is known by his acts of justice;
    the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. LORD GOD, WITH YOU AND IN CHRIST, WE ARE BECOME THE ARMY OF DESTRUCTION THAT DESTROYS THE DESTROYER!
¹⁷ The wicked go down to the realm of the dead,
    all the nations that forget God.  YET WE RISE UP, PROCLAIMING TRUTH AND WORSHIPING THE LORD WHO REIGNS ON HIGH!
¹⁸ But God will never forget the needy; the hope of the afflicted will never perish.  YOU WILL NEVER FORGET MY DEAR ________________ AND YOU WILL CAUSE THEM TO HOPE AGAIN!

OH, HOW WE THANK YOU!  REMEMBER TODAY THOSE WE LOVE, OUR DESPERATE FRIENDS, OUR FRIENDS DECEIVED, DUPED, DESTROYED, WOUNDED, WORRIED, WONDERING WHERE YOU ARE.  WE KNOW WHERE YOU ARE, AND WE BRING THEM BEFORE YOU!
¹⁹ Arise, Lord, do not let mortals triumph;
    let the nations be judged in your presence.  IF MORTALS SHALL NOT TRIUMPH, HOW MUCH MORE CERTAIN IS IT THAT THOSE WHO LEAD THEM WILL BE UNDONE, THROWN INTO CONFUSION, AND DEFEATED.
²⁰ Strike them with terror, Lord;
    let the nations know they are only mortal.  LET YOUR PEOPLE LEARN, AT LAST, THAT WE ARE NO LONGER MERE MEN; WE BELONG TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND WE BEAR HIS KIND, HIS MERCIFUL, HIS INTERCEDING IMAGE.  (Psalm 9:15-20, NIV)

 

 

The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug;
    their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.
¹⁶ The Lord is known by his acts of justice;
    the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands.^[c]
17 The wicked go down to the realm of the dead,
    all the nations that forget God.
¹⁸ But God will never forget the needy;
    the hope of the afflicted will never perish.

¹⁹ Arise, Lord, do not let mortals triumph;
    let the nations be judged in your presence.
²⁰ Strike them with terror, Lord;
    let the nations know they are only mortal.

 

 St. Anthony, Tempted by Devils, Schongauer, between 1480 and 1490, public domain, Wikipedia