CHECK YOUR BULWARKS (defenses)
BY Linda Kirby/WGON
When God defeated the Assyrians, the enemy for Jerusalem, the people went about the city checking its defenses making sure everything was still in good standing (Ps. 48). We as Christians need to be sure and double check our bulwarks/defenses against our enemies, whoever or whatever that enemy may be, to make sure we didn’t lose anything in the battle. We might have found ourselves doing or saying something we shouldn’t have. We can ask God to forgive that. We may have fought a hard battle which wore us down so much that we became weak, not just in our flesh but in our spiritual well-being also. Sometimes that’s how people fall away. They say, “I can’t understand why God is letting this happen”….so they don’t want to continue to follow him. Sometimes, we just get so tired emotionally, physically and spiritually, that we just “flatline." In other words, we just stop being Christlike...we stop working for Jesus…we stop witnessing….we stop reading our bibles….we stop praying!! This is why it’s so important to “check your bulwarks” as Ps.48:13 says. In other words, check your defenses, are they strong? Do you read your bible daily? Do you pray a lot? Do you commune with the Lord daily? These ARE your defenses. Without doing these, that defense will crumble and you will flat line!! Once you have checked your defenses and everything is still strong, give God the glory, praise Him for getting you through whatever trial you had to endure. Thank Him for defeating your Assyrian for you. Without His hand in that battle, you would not have been strong enough to get through it and you certainly wouldn’t have had what you needed to beat that enemy. So, give God all the glory and thank Him often, just as the Israelites did in Psalms 46-48!