In Psalms 118:6, the Psalmist made the statement, “The Lord is on my side…” With the state of things being what they are in our society today, we sometimes need help to cope. We need advice that can help us out of difficult situations or that will prevent us from getting into those situations in the first place. We need strength when we find ourselves overwhelmed by the burdens of life. We need a friend who can lift our spirits when we get low. We need someone who can set us straight when we get off course. Who better to provide these things for us than God? It must have been a wonderful feeling for the Psalmist to be able to confidently say, “The Lord is on my side.”
You, too, can have the Lord on your side, and the wonderful thing is He wants to be on your side to give you the strength you need to overcome the devil. Here are a few things to consider:
The Lord Is On Our Side…
When we invite Him into our lives
It is sometimes amazing who and what we invite into our lives as guests. We open the door to various kinds of entertainment and recreation. We invite books and television shows into our lives. We cannot wait sometimes to spend a few hours with our favorite TV character.
What about the Lord? Have we invited the King of kings into our lives? Whoever you are, Jesus wants to be a part of your life. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me”(Revelation 3:20).
How do you invite Him into your life? Obedience! God has done His part in making a relationship with Him and His Son possible. Now you must do your part by obeying the gospel.
Romans 1:16 (ESV)
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Obeying the gospel is more than mental assent. It is more than saying a few religious-sounding words. It is following the inspired instruction of the gospel (Mark 16:15, 16; Acts 17:30; Acts 8:35-37; Acts 2:38). Why not invite the Lord to be by your side? You need Him more than you know.
When we bring forth the fruit of holiness
God is light, and in Him there is no darkness. God can have no fellowship with sin.
Why? Because God can have no relationship with darkness. His holy and righteous nature will not allow it.
1 John 1:5-7 (ESV)
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we, therefore, invite the Lord into our lives by obeying the gospel only to turn back to sin, we do not allow the Lord to abide on our side. Continual obedience is required to maintain a relationship with our Lord. “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23).
Holiness and obedience go hand in hand. Obedience is the fruit of holiness that Paul refers to in Romans 6:22, and Peter puts these two attributes together in his writings as well.
1 Peter 1:14–15 (ESV)
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.
Be holy and enjoy the presence of the Lord by your side.
When we abide in His doctrine
2 John 9–10 (ESV)
9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting,
Some say that doctrine is not that important and that we can maintain a relationship with the Lord and with our heavenly Father no matter what we teach doctrinally. The main thing, they say, is believing that Jesus is the Son of God, and that is the only important thing.
John, by inspiration, indicates something completely different. If we abide not in the doctrine of Christ, we have not God, that is, we do not have the Lord on our side. What is the doctrine of Christ under consideration? It is the teachings of Christ (John 7:10-16). And since the teachings of the apostles are the teachings of Christ (1 Corinthians 14:37), where you find the teachings of the apostles, you find the doctrine of Christ. We must live by and teach others the doctrine of Christ. If we do this, having obeyed the gospel, Jesus will be on our side.
What a wonderful blessing it is to have the Lord on our side. If God is for us (and with us), who can stand against us? The devil is defenseless, and his ministers are hopeless when the Lord is on our side.