FRIDAY, APRIL 24
Scripture: Judges 3:1-4

Judges 3:1-4 says, “Now these are the nations which the Lord left, that He might test Israel by them, that is, all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan (this was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it), namely, five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath. And they were left, that He might test Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.” How simple can that be? If there is adversity in front of us, we keep the way of the Lord and we move toward putting it under our feet. Or else, we reject the way of the Lord and we start living by their rules. But if we start living by the rules of our enemies, we will lose our nations. We cannot keep a nation if we enable filling it with iniquity. There is no way we can keep our nations if we play by the enemy’s rules. God knew that every generation has to learn to be warriors and be willing to fight what is evil. We must be willing to restrain evil, or we make little headway for the Kingdom. And it is a daily choice. It means we must adopt an attitude against it. The attitude David had was to hate evil with a perfect hatred. We are hard pressed to find believers who think in those terms anymore. Giving in to false doctrine and giving in to the enemy is easier than fighting, but that has to change. The church either changes, or we will likely lose our nation.