Many of us may feel like we’ve been in exile this year. We may have thought we’d be in a better place by October 2020, just like the children of Israel who felt discouraged in this scripture. Psalm 85 was likely written after the Israelites returned from exile back to Jerusalem after 70 years. They thought that they could return to a pre-exilic state, but there was no going back. Nothing was going to be normal. Similar to the Israelites, we too may be facing disappointment.

Ephesians 10:6 tells us to be strong in the Lord. That is our calling, yet it doesn’t just happen overnight. Spiritual strength needs to be developed just like physical strength. We are vulnerable as we face social unrest, political division, and a pandemic. Since we don’t gather as much as before, we can become spiritually weak. There is a real heaven and hell, and the forces of good and evil battle for our soul. We are part of God’s eternal plan, and Satan has already lost the battle. We are spiritually strengthened by the Lord. We are strong in his mighty power.

Our fight is not against each other; it is against the invisible world we cannot see. The greatest weapon we can have in this fight is the truth of God’s word. We can’t always trust what we see, we can’t always trust the conclusions that we draw from the facts, but God’s Word is always true. We must look beyond the fruit and down to the root. We have been armed with the truth. We are more than overcomers in Christ Jesus. If we want to be spiritually strong and experience victory in our relationships and our businesses, we must put on the belt of truth. Then we will see his goodness and power in our lives.

1. Can you recall times that you or others followed God by setting your feet, standard, and heart in the midst of a challenging season or circumstance? What happened when you or someone you know faced a hardship in this way?

2. Have you ever failed to set your feet, standard and heart in line with God when hard times hit? How did you recover?

3. What has this pandemic taught you about faithfulness in hardship?

4. What can you do to strengthen your mind and heart to follow God in “surthrival”?

Sometimes God allows situations that bring a shift to our circumstances, either through change or transformation. We shift when we change, exchange, move, transfer, or transform. It can be hard to make that shift when things are going well, and we are successful. Oftentimes, our mindset is: why change when things are going well?

2020 is a test in our lives and so we need wisdom and how to move through it. Last week we talked about the “Whose Voice” test, and how to gain wisdom and understanding in how to navigate whose voice is speaking. The next test is the “What’s Real?” test: using wise judgment to determine truth from lies, fact from fiction, and opinion from reality.

Reflection/Discussion Questions:

1. How do you discern whose voice is speaking as you listen to voices in the mainstream media, social media, opinions and assumptions of others? How do you discern God’s voice?

2. Have you been speaking life or death over yourself and your life?

3. Have the people that you have been surrounding yourself with been speaking life or death?

4. Are there certain voices you believe you should stop listening to based on the fruit of those conversations?

5. Who are the voices in your life that demonstrate fruit that you want to listen to more?

In Luke 22:39, Jesus shows us patterns of prayer. He was tempted to disconnect from the Father’s will because the cross seemed too hard to bear. Yet, he persevered because he was strengthened by prayer. Twice we see that his disciples are following him physically but disconnected spiritually. The disciples followed Jesus to the place of prayer, but they did not pray. While Jesus was praying, the disciples were sleeping.