In Isaiah 58, God says,

And let him return to the Lord,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

God calls us to come as we are, filthy sinners, and to enjoy the richest of fare. We don’t pay for it with our own pecuniary resources of holiness. We cannot make things right or bring justice. We cannot pay for our wrongs. But through Jesus Christ, God calls . . .

Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters;
And you who have no money come, buy and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without cost.
“Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And delight yourself in abundance.

Cease striving, know that Jesus Christ is God, and behold the works of the Lord. Justice was met through the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus took on the punishment we deserved. He filled both our need for justice as well as God’s justice. He has reconciled us to God. He makes wars to cease. And He calls out to us, “Come all who are weary and burdened, come find the justice you are looking for, come find rest from you labor.” He will be exalted and bring a people to Himself among the nations

Psalm 31, is a song describing God’s reaction to the sinner. He states that in the midst of our sin, we should, “Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.” Often in our sin, we don’t want to come to Him, we are like a stubborn mule. But in His tender love, He cries out, while it is called Today, “Come.”

“Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; he is my steadfast love and my fortress my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.” – Psalm 144:1,2

God has made us partakers in work that He has wrought in our lives. The work that God does by grace brings us in to participate with Him in the work that He is accomplishing. When David went to fight, He did it in God’s power, in God’s way, for God’s glory. That doesn’t mean he didn’t really fight. His fighting was real. Battle is very real, in your face stuff. God has called us to put sin to death and to fight the good fight of the faith. And this is real. The fact that God does it, does not mean that there is not a real struggle or a real fight. The message is not “because it is God, we can sit back.” The message is to fight, to “. . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” It is because of Him we fight. And it is because He has accomplished the victory that have the confidence to fight. If we don’t fight, we don’t have faith in the work that God has done. Faith without works is dead.

It was because David didn’t have any confidence in himself that he could fight. His confidence was in God alone. The scriptures say that the Spirit of the Lord was on David. That is where His desire and strength came from.

And because of this, David did not boast in himself. . . In Judges 7:2, “The LORD said to Gideon, ‘The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’’” In this fight, we must not declare, “My own power has delivered me.” You did not overcome, God alone did. Although He allows us to participate in the work that He is doing, God alone sanctifies us.

God will glorify himself. And yet we so often live in a way where we work to try to bring the glory of God about, instead of resting in grace and simply being faithful and obedient to the One who will bring His glory. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
We can rest in this. God has declared us righteous. He has made us kings and priests. But the Christian life is not “now that we are kings and princes, we walk out in our own strength and work to see God’s Kingdome come.” It is Grace from first to last. We are not kings and priests by our own strength or righteousness, and we never will be. We are kings and priests because of His word. And we stand and press into the kingdom not by our works, but by His word that makes it so. And so, we continue to press in by grace. But what a grace it is! And how mighty is our God!
And it is because of His word that we can face the gates of Hell and fight without fear.

Jeremiah 9:22-24
“23Thus says the LORD, ” Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; 24but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.”

Do you believe in the work He has wrought in you?

To whom do you give your faith to in the battle?

Do you have faith to go to the battle, are you afraid?

Additional readings: Romans 8; Psalm 73:26; Psalm 20:7; Proverbs 25:14

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