"..my adversaries are all before You." (Ps. 69)

Looking to Christ in His hour of trouble...observing what He did, what He prayed for...

"...what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name." (John 12:27,28)

It must be that in some of our dark hours, the conflict of soul centers around our idol worship...

"Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the ...they did not confess Him, lest they should (lose something they loved more than Christ); for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." (John 12:42,43)

I was glad to observe that Christ did not appeal to Himself, to His own resources. He simply reiterated His purpose, He acknowledged the difficulty of the "hour" and He asked His Father to glorify Himself, to glorify His name. Sometimes Christ tells us as believers: "Occupy till I come!" and we don't know when He will come but we know that we have to "man the fort/turn back the battle at the gate" ...until He comes or until He takes us to Himself.

Looking across our nation's political landscape...I see the entrenched goal of our Adversary to "steal, kill & destroy".

"A wicked man accepts a bribe behind the back to pervert the ways of justice." (Prov. 17:23)

"And there were also perverted persons in the land." (1 Kings 14:24)

"Wisdom is in the sight of him who has understanding, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth." (Prov. 17:24)

Because the Spirit of God will not always strive with men, because men in and of themselves cannot see spiritual realities unless God brings light to them, how dangerous it is to postpone settling eternal matters "until a more convenient time", until certain objectives are reached...

"While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light...he who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him--the Word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day."

When God tells us what to do, when He gives us wisdom and grace for obedience for the present hour...how foolish we can be when we ignore His prompting...and keep our eyes "on the ends of the earth"...whatever that means for each one of us!

It is reassuring to know that all He wants us to do in our difficult hours is to look to Him and expect from Him and know beyond any doubt that through our submission to His will He never fails to glorify His name. It is not within our means and power to glorify His name but He always manages to "thunder" His will and purposes and even as Christ died, He fulfilled the promises and He achieved the goal for which He came: "I...will draw ...to Myself." (John 12)

He can "thunder" His purposes even in our own lives, our families and our nation...when we come to Him with our troubled souls, purpose not to ask for deliverance from our present hour of trouble and humbly ask Him to glorify His name...for His greater glory!