Overcoming Rebellion

by Charles R. Swindoll


“How many are my iniquities and sins?
Make known to me my rebellion and my sin.”


---Job 13:23


Lord, You know that the human heart is rebellious. You are fully aware that this is a fallen world. We see evidence of it before our very eyes on every evening news broadcast. We witness again and again the ugly realities of stubbornness and resistance and selfishness. We not only watch the flesh battle the flesh, we're engaged in the battle ourselves! Our Father, please give Your people the ability to survive these difficult times.


I pray, Lord, that our fallen condition will not cause us to compromise our convictions in the delicate days of the future. May we stand on tiptoe, like the ancient Hebrews in Exodus 19, who heard the horn as it blew and saw the smoke and the cloud and the lightning that flashed on Sinai and realized that You are to be taken seriously. Find in us hearts willing to do that. Give us an unselfish generosity---great heartedness---in the process of transitioning us from the way we were to the place we will be.


Lord, may we trust You completely. Just as Moses trusted You to get the Hebrews out of Egypt, so we trust You to get us into the promised land, bringing us safely to the other side of death, through bodily resurrection and on to new life in a new creation. Go before us, Lord, stay behind us, and surround us with what we need to overcome our rebellion. Give us a sense of peace and confidence that You are in the lead, not us. And cause us to trust You completely as we walk sensitively and humbly with our God through the days before us. We ask it in Jesus's name. Amen.