“No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is from Me:”
Says the Lord. (Isaiah 54:17 NKJV)

The fears we fight. The doom of discouragement. The downfall of doubt, and the weariness of worry are all from the enemy. They are his weapons.

In the preceding verse, God said He created the blacksmith who manufactures weapons of war. God also created the evil men who harm others with those weapons. In this verse, God reminds us He is sovereign. He will not allow those weapons to prosper. He created all angels. God could have destroyed Lucifer and the fallen angels long ago, but He didn’t. He planned to show our enemy a creature lesser than angels (mankind) who can trust in God and triumph over all demonic forces.

At times, God prevents the bullets of the enemy from striking us, the heritage of the Lord. At other times, the weapon hits its target. Whether it is disease, debt, disability, drugs, divorce, disaster, or any dilemma the enemy has thrown your way. It is his weapon. Scripture doesn’t say the weapon is never formed, but that it never prospers.

When we fall under enemy fire, God allows it for a greater good.

God exchanges evil for excellence.

When that weapon comes against us, it never prospers because God uses it to mature us. God works it out for good (rom. 8:28).

The tongues that rise against us can range from criticism to jealousy. From slander to verbal assault. Sharp arrows are hurled at us from the lips of others. They strike us on social media. They travel down the grapevine until they reach us.

Today, Iva and I were shopping in Walmart when words like fiery arrows were hurled at me from another customer. Someone who considered himself an authority on service dog laws. His foul language proved him to be a jerk with only enough courage to pick on a blind woman. Instead of arguing with an idiot, I went to the service desk where they assured me Iva was welcomed in the store, as they informed the manager.

Iva and I just celebrated our fourth anniversary. I have heard the horrific stories from other guide dog users. Anything from physically harming their dogs to a car share driver playing a game of hide-and-seek with a blind woman waiting on her ride. God has blessed us to only meet one extremely rude person in four years.

Hate-filled people roam society seeking someone to take out their frustrations on. Someone who can’t fight back, like a senior citizen enjoying a meal in a restaurant or a blind woman shopping. But these assaults do not go unnoticed by our Father.

We must not allow the words of evil people to discourage us from our normal activities. We cannot permit these weapons to bring us down. Instead, we must allow the peace of God to saturate our hearts, knowing that God sees and He hears. He will not allow attacks on His children to go unpunished.

Read more about my guide dog, Iva in the first book in the Guide Dog Tales series, Faith, Freedom and 4 Paws: Seeing God Through Iva’s Eyes. Click here.

Originally posted on October 12, 2020 @ 3:00 am