Psalm 56:9
I resolve to live a life of unrebukable holiness this year, a scandal-free life. However, I do know this will not be easy without His overarching grace and divine help and companionship. The same enemy that dogged and trailed us in 2023 has a renewed contract out on our heads, determined more than ever to steal, kill, and destroy in 2024. In fact,He is more ferocious in his endeavors to wreak mass havoc and destruction upon us than in 2023. It will not be easy! However, my abiding conviction and consolation come from the living Word. In our passage of reflection, the Psalmist contends “When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies turn back: This I know; for God is for me” (Psalm 56:9).
I don’t mean to scare us in 2024 but it is more than inferred from the passage that the enemy and his cohorts are not afraid of any of us. The only time they back up is when they know that we have made contact and appealed to the Higher Power. That’s the only time they back up and turn away and desist. How simply powerful! “When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back.” Like you, I am emboldened by this. I was a “goner” without Him. Church, all we have to do is cry unto the Lord. I trust our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting shall not end on January 22nd.
Just as importantly, the Psalmist brilliantly shares more truth with his readers. He enlighteningly states “. . . this I know, for God is for me” (9). He testifies most positively the truth of not only divine accompaniment but the fact that God is for him. The apostle Paul corroborates this when to the Romans he asserts “. . . if God be for us who can be against us” (Romans 8:31). I seriously think this is all we need in 2024. God is for us – our success, our health, our healing, our prosperity, our well-being, our home, our churches, our children, our families, our progress! I trust we can repeat this every day as a mantra in 2024 – God is for me!
Undoubtedly, we will meet and face much evil in 2024 – evil seen and unforeseen, but let’s move forward most buoyantly and courageously, bolstered by this singular truth – God is for us, constantly pushing back the darkness. Because He is there, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper . . .” (Isaiah 54:17). Every foe shall be defeated. We, therefore, resolve to live a most victorious, Jesus-filled life in 2024. What do I assuredly know? “. . . This I know; for God is for me” (Psalm 56:9).
Leroy V. Greenaway
Presiding Bishop – Northeast Region
January 14th, 2024