Feed on
Posts
Comments

It’s tough to watch somebody you care about continue to make choices that harm themselves … and sometimes others.

The problem might involve booze or drugs or bitter hatred or porn or unrestrained spending or sexual immorality or even just a merry-go-round of failed, short-term relationships.

Sometimes, the choices are particularly harmful and can lead to steep costs such as financial, moral or physical bankruptcy.

You might even have someone you love who is in the midst of a painful, costly chapter now because of previous choices.

So what do you do?

Lecture them?

Look the other way?

Write them off and stop caring?

Beg them to stop?

Giving up on them is not a faithful option.

Giving them up to the Lord IS the faithful option.

While our words to them might vary based on their personality and our level of relationship with them, the words that will matter most are those spoken not to them but to the Lord.

When chronic sin has enchained a loved one’s life, only the power of the Lord break that chain.

That’s why our prayers are so important in the desired deliverance of a loved one from Satan’s grip.

Sadly, the consequences of that loved one’s sin are sometimes already taking hold by the time we learn of the problem.

What do we do?

What Aaron did in Numbers 16:43-50, that’s what.

We carry the burning incense of prayer to the Lord, standing between Him and the “dead,” the loved one in rebellion.

Click the link above and you’ll read of how Moses’ brother Aaron, the first high priest, grabbed the incense burner from the tabernacle and ran out to stand between the grumbling Hebrews and the cloud of the Lord’s presence that had covered the tabernacle.

You’ll recall that the smoke and aroma of the incense burners were visible representations of the prayers that God desired from His people.

By running and grabbing the incense burner, Aaron was clearly indicating the prayerful desire for God’s mercy to not give people the punishment they deserved.

God relented.

The full weight of consequences was withheld.

Thank God for Aaron’s intercession.

Please, my friend, pray fervently for your loved one caught in a lie of Satan.

He or she might still have to feel the bitter sting of some consequences, but your “standing between the living and the dead” just might persuade God to withhold the full measure of consequences they deserve.

We’d certainly want someone else to pray this for us if we were caught in Satan’s web of deception.

As always, I love you
Martin

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
  • Share/Bookmark

Leave a Reply