We can be encouraged by seeing that God deals in absolutes, all the time.  Today, let’s look at the further encouragement that we can have because our God does nothing half-way, half-rate, or half-baked.

Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Looking at that passage through a lens of absolutes, just look what God offers us!  

• We’re brothers and sisters in Christ (period!) and we don’t need to be enemies or adversaries anymore (if only we understood that). 
• We can have confidence, not just a little bit of etiquette coaching to keep us from getting obliterated, but full confidence to enter. 
• Enter what?  The Most Holy Place!  Before we would have been afraid to come into God’s presence, but now we can have confidence!  Full and complete!
• We have confidence because this is the absolute power of the blood of Jesus.  He is our absolute and perfect sacrifice! 
• He opened a new way, not simply rebuilding, reforming, or tweaking an old way.   
• He opened a living way because He died for our sins.  He didn’t half die, half suffer, or go Dutch, half paying and we’re responsible for the other half.  No way!  He said, “It is finished!”  Boom.  Now we have access to eternal life!
• He’s our Great High Priest over the house of God!  He’s needs no other intermediaries and we don’t either.  Jesus Christ is absolutely perfect and perfectly enough for all we need for all time.
• We can have sincere hearts and full assurance of faith.  No half-hearted and tepid assurance!  Nope.  It’s all or nothing.
• Why?  Because our hearts have been cleansed … even from a guilty conscience as if we’ve been washed head-to-toe, inside and out with pure water that doesn’t come from a bottle or filtered Zero water.  It’s perfectly pure.

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Because this is absolutely, completely, and thoroughly ours through confession of faith in Christ and His immeasurable grace, we have total confidence in this hope:

He who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23)

Think about it: 

• If God didn’t deal in absolutes, how much confidence could we really have? 
• If we have been all-or-nothing forgiven by grace, because it’s all or nothing law (James 2:10) that we cannot keep, how does that raise the stakes for spreading the good news about salvation? 
• How ought it inform our understanding that we have been forgiven and not reliving what we regret?

Praise Him!  He is faithful.  Praise Him for this full and complete confidence given to us as a gift!  Praise Him for the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Praise Him that we need no other advocate or intermediary!  Praise Him!  He is God alone.

Isaiah 66:1 This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? 2 Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD. “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.”

Sometimes we just don’t get it.  We think we can earn favor with God. 

Maybe not so much with our minds, but in our actions. 

Striving, striving, work, work, work, doing things for the Lord. 

It’s not only foolish, it’s prideful.  And I say this as one who learns this tough lesson over and again, only to lapse back into the same old routine until I remind myself of this truth:  God doesn’t need my help with anything. 

All He wants is for me to recognize Him for who He is, for what He has done, and the absolute nature of it all. 

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You see, there is no half-way with God.  Part sovereign, part helpless?  Part Creator and part experiencing Creator’s block after that random accidental explosion in space surprised Him and now He’s watching spell-bound as the warm little pond takes over?  Part goodness and holiness …and part just not caring what we do?  We ought not deceive ourselves.  There is no 50:50 or even 85:15.  It’s all or nothing. He cares very much what we do, all the time. 

God dwells in absolutes. 

He is God and everything else…and I do mean everything…is created.  Therefore, in my seeing Him rightly, I see myself as I am.  Created.  I can chill.  He’s got it covered.  And my response can simply be humility, a contrite spirit, and trembling at God’s word.  Why?  Because I see my smallness for real in the realm of the footstool.  After all, He is King and “Heaven is My Throne,” He says.

Think about it: 

• What has happened to absolutes in our culture? 
• Why do you think our culture rejects absolutes? 
• In what ways is our tendency to go on auto-pilot as if the sovereign of our lives is ourselves?  
• How has the drift away from acknowledging a Creator God contributed to this?

Praise Him—He is sovereign!  Praise Him—He is good!  Praise Him—He knows the stars and He knows your name, too.  Praise Him—He will never leave you stranded half-way, He’ll be with you to the end.  Praise Him—He esteems those who know Him and obey His Word.  Praise Him—He is above all circumstances and has all the power you’ll ever need to solve any problem.  Praise Him—He calms storms and He carries you through the ones His wisdom will not calm so your faith will grow.  Praise Him—He is King and He reigns forever.  Amen.

World angst over the large and small, the first-world problems and the very real ones, stresses over life-as-we-know-it and life-as-we-thankfully-don’t … it can weigh a person down. 

The prophet Jeremiah in his book of sorrow, Lamentations, describes that downcast feeling…that time when you feel like you’ve had enough and just can’t take it anymore. 

Lamentations 3:1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. 2 He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; 3 indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. 4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. 5 He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. 6 He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. 7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains. 8 Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. 9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked. 10 Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, 11 he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. 12 He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows. 13 He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver. 14 I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long. 15 He has filled me with bitter herbs and sated me with gall. 16 He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust. 17 I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. 18 So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD.” 19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.

Wow.  His life stinks.  What was his solution?  Get off Twitter, it’s a sewer?  Start a Facebook fast?  Stop posting on Instagram?  Turn off the nightly news?  Nope.

Lamentations 3:21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

He did what King David did before him:  “Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.” (1 Samuel 30:6) 

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This new series Encouraging Verses will help us to do the same.  To strengthen, to encourage ourselves in the Lord our God.  Verses to remind us of God’s great love, His compassion, His faithfulness, His sovereignty, His power, and all the other reasons we can simply trust His goodness. 

Encouraging Verses, even in times like these.  Especially in times like these.

You know, it doesn’t really matter how many times people say it, it’s still not true, when they say that a man cannot represent a woman’s interests. 

And how thankful I am that two men did!

Scripture is clear about such representation: 

 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22)

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The simple truth is Representation is God’s Wisdom for Salvation from Sin.  Only God could have seen the wisdom in it from the very beginning.  Even before He picked up some dust of the Earth and made the decision to create Adam.  Before God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26).  Man would rule as God’s representative (in His Image, in His likeness) and implement God’s reign over the rest of creation.  Representation was there.  Intentionally.

Had representation not been there in Adam, salvation would not be possible by representation in Christ.

Let that sink in.  The genius of it all, on many levels.

When we deny we’re created by God, we are excluding ourselves from being redeemed in Him also.  We’d miss out on representation completely.  We’re only represented because we were created.

When we deny we sin and have a sin nature inherited through Adam’s first sin, we are denying also our representation in Christ’s finished work on the Cross, defeating sin for us.  We are represented as the human race with Adam’s having sin’s self-inflicted brokenness and Christ being the healer by defeating it.

Moreover, when I—as a woman—deny my relationship to man and Eve’s being formed from Adam, I’m excluding myself from being represented by Christ.  When I view every man as the product of “toxic masculinity” I deny that Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).  Jesus was a biological male and not toxic whatsoever.  For women to paint all men with a “broad-brush” is wrong and I need to accept, with gratitude, that I can be—and was—represented by a man who died on a Cross in my place.

What do you think about representation now?  Why do surface characteristics only go so far?  Do you see the danger in demanding a woman’s savior, an Asian savior, a black savior, and a gay savior, etc?  Such identity-representation requirements are skin-deep and ineffective.  I’m thankful for God’s way.  It’s genius, really, that Representation is God’s Wisdom for Salvation from Sin.

Just imagine for a moment if we could earn our way out of our sin predicament and separation from God.  I can picture a few different scenarios: 

1. We’d be beating each other up for opportunities to earn our way out of Hell. 
2. We’d procrastinate, waiting until the last minute like cramming for finals. 
3. We’d misjudge how much earning we’d need like people do with retirement income in commercials. 
4. We’d amass huge salvation-earning-stockpiles and portfolios and show off to our friends and neighbors. 
5. We’d get into an “I’m more saved than you are” attitude. 
6. We’d post about it on social media and inflate our good works to make jealous those among our bazillion closest friends we’ve never met and prompt their immediate unfriending. 
7. We’d cut God out of the equation completely.  Ouch.

That’s why God—in His infinite wisdom—doesn’t let us do that.  He gives us grace.  We come to Him by faith and if our faith is genuine, God opens His stockpile of grace and simply gives salvation to us as a free gift in a miraculous exchange, courtesy of Jesus.

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Ephesians 2:3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions– it is by grace you have been saved… 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith– and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

It’s a reflection of God’s love for you and for me…

and more accurately, for His Image in you and in me. 

You see, if it was God’s love for your personality, my flesh, your actions, my thoughts, etc., we’d be earning it.  There is only one thing I have in common with you in equal amounts: God’s Image.  If you want to split hairs, you could say, we’re both human in equal amounts and we both have a sin disposition, but for two things:  God doesn’t love our sinfulness—that sin nature—and it’s God’s Image that separates human animal, you and me, from the rest of the Animal Kingdom.

So, it begs the questions: 

Are you still trying to earn your way to heaven? 

Or do you see that Grace is the Wisdom of Favor We Cannot Earn?”

Have you ever noticed that at the same time submission has become a dirty word, authority has become an object of hatred? 

What began as a breakdown of Christian education became a relational breakdown in the home and that became a systemic breakdown in our culture.  The circle of chaos repeats, enlarging with every generation.

Women and men are increasingly giving up on the way of truth and true life in the Bible’s instruction:

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). 

The ramifications of this neglect are dire: children rebelling against parents.  Students rebelling against teachers.  Lawbreakers rebelling against police.  People rebelling against their elected government.  Culture rebelling against God.  I wish people understood how wrong that is in all its forms.  It’s harmful to both self and culture.

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How wonderful it would be if everyone had an appreciation for the beauty of biblical submission and biblical authority, both perfect and amazing in their own ways at the same time!  It is a reflection, a pattern, of our relationship with God. 

It is the only sustainable way of true life.  It’s not a negative at all when viewed rightly. It’s not a power-thing.  It’s not a control-thing.  It’s not a comparative-superiority thing.  But the latter is the meaning our culture has given it.

Therefore, perhaps the larger problem is that people prefer to be in authority rather than under it.  They prefer to require submission from others instead of being in submission themselves.  It’s essentially saying, “I’m right” or “I want power” or “You’d be better off under my control and direction.”  It’s pride, arrogance, and selfishness at its very core, directed at the horizontal relationships of human interaction.  But it’s also spiritual.  It’s rebellion against God, defiance against our Maker, and rejection of His rightful authority over us.

The Church has failed the people in its acquiescence to the culture.  Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for every woman’s right to be treated as equally wonderful creations of God. 

But the point at which we didn’t teach God’s authority, we also rejected our dependence upon each other as men and women equally submitted to God, and turned our gaze downward to each other, and adopted all the bad things equal authority can give and forsook the beautiful protection of submission at all levels.  We became enemies, adversaries, or at least competitors instead of cooperative partners in a godly team enjoying a journey of mutual submission to our supreme Authority: God Himself.

What’s the cure for this rebellion?  Submission.  The Wisdom of Respecting Authority, not rejecting it. Far from being bad news, it leads us to the place of the life-giving good news modeled by our Savior whom Scripture says is fully God … just like the Father … and yet said, Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Christians need to see the true sustainable life in mutual submission and display its wisdom to the world around us.

Do you trust God?  Some of us say “You bet!”  Some of us say “Yes, but…”  Some of us don’t trust Him at all or even acknowledge His existence.

Truth is, I’m in the “Yes, but” category more often than I’d like to think.  Trusting God day in and day out is really easy…until He asks you to do something that scares the socks off of you, something that will make you really unpopular, something you’ve never tried and don’t know how to do, or something you’ve tried before and have failed at doing more times than you can count.

When we’re on autopilot doing our thing and God is the invisible copilot of our life, trust is easy because in truth, we’re trusting ourselves and expect God will get us out of a jam if we get into one.  Taking a joy ride through life with God as a copilot requires remarkably little trust in Him.

But…when God says, “Excuse Me, but you’re in My seat” and decides to take over as pilot by rights, that’s when a holy fear sets in.  He steers to places we don’t want to go … to learn lessons we need to learn but don’t want to … and He tests our faith and monitors the who and what of our fears.

Fearless is the Wisdom of Trusting God in Adversity. 

When He’s the pilot and steers your flight to the war zone

and you’re tempted to be scared,

instead be fearless because you trust Him and you trust what He’s doing.

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Isaiah 43:1 But now, this is what the LORD says– he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. 3 For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

As you reread this passage of Scripture, note the bookends of why we should not fear and our reasons to be fearless.  His creative work is unparalleled.  His redemption is permanent.  His summons is real.  His ownership is authentic and inalterable.  His presence with you is promised.  His protection flows from His character as an almighty, unchangeable, and loving God.

He can command “Fear not” because He was there in the past when you were created and formed and redeemed and summoned.  He is here claiming ownership.  You are mine, He says.  He declares His promise to be with His redeemed as He is forever I AM.  What a powerful final bookend! It’s like a gavel pounding.  He says

I AM … the Lord … your God … the Holy One … your Savior.

In light of Who He is and Whose you are, would you say you are fearless?

We’re living in a time in which it’s hard to live a godly life.  I don’t know that it’s ever been easy, but it seems like there’s much in our instant-gratification-culture that establishes a quick lure to the dark side.  If we’re not careful by actively, continually pressing into goodness, Boom!  There we are.  On the dark side before we really know what’s happened.  Each of us asking ourselves,

How did I get here?”

People can persist in many things, whether good pursuits or bad habits.  For the Christian, Persistence is the Wisdom of Pressing Onward and Upward.  It’s not just an annoying continuance as a pesky fly, but in season and out, engaging in an onward and upward pursuit of what is good and godly.

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Romans 2: 6 God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

Do you see, both types of persistence involve a continuation, but only one pursuit is godly?

Granted no one likes to talk about sin, but I believe the Church has been doing the people a disservice.  How?  By taking the easy and comfortable route of nonconfrontation, showing only one side of persistence, only talking about the reward for seeking to do good…and importantly, without showing the powerful and deadly counterexample of what happens to those who reject God’s truth.

Ignoring the negatives of wrath, anger, and punishment implies an annihilationism (that wrath never happens, we just become nothing), feeding a Darwinian dust-to-dust mentality.  “Do good (relative truth) as your own reward and when you die you will have been a good person” is the message conveyed and we’ve bought it lock, stock, and barrel.

Do you see how wrong that self-seeking, self-truth message is? 

It ends in wrath and anger just as if the person followed evil.  Don’t be that guy. 

Be the one who seeks God’s truth and presses onward to eternal reward.

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Father God, we thank You for Your Word which contains all the truth we’ll ever need.  Lord Jesus, thank You for suffering and dying and taking the wrath that should have been ours and giving us the opportunity of redemption by Your grace, through our faith in You.  Holy Spirit teach us what grace means and what truth is and point us eternally to the One who came in grace and truth, to live, to die, and to rise again.  May we follow You, doing good, seeking glory, honor and immortality, and knowing You as the best reward heaven can offer.  In Your precious Name, Amen.

How well do you accept other people?  Accept that they are different from you?  Accept their different gifts, abilities, skills, temperaments, and idiosyncrasies?  If everyone had your gifts, abilities, skills, temperament, and idiosyncrasies, would you even like them?  Or would they suddenly become competition instead of kindred spirits?

I cannot think of anyone more unlike me than Jesus.  He was/is perfect. 

And, well … I’m not.  He and I do not share the same gender, the same ethnicity, the same household income, language, even the same “religion.”  (Remember, of course, He was a faithful Jew and I am not).

Because of Acceptance: The Wisdom of Observable Love, I belong to Him.  He has accepted me despite the one thing I have in common with everyone besides Him.  He has accepted me though I am a sinner.

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Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God doesn’t just say He accepts me.  He demonstrated it.  Jesus died on the Cross to say that forgiveness is available even though (and especially because) I am a sinner and can’t save myself.  I can’t save myself through self-help programs.  I can’t save myself through random acts of kindness or seeking world peace.  I can’t save myself by resisting or supporting elected officials.  I can’t save myself through Bible studies or mission trips.  I can’t save myself through intellectual development and scientific/ medical discoveries. 

What saves me (and can save you, too) is God’s observable love—the proof that God’s acceptance of us is based upon His character and not our performance.  It’s out there in the open.  It’s observable love.

God could have just said “My Son died for your sins in a hidden place in Antarctica or the Mojave or the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean or in the cloud tops high above Dubuque” and oh, just to trust that it happened even though no one saw it.  But He didn’t. 

He doesn’t ask for blind trust.  Why?  Because Acceptance is the Wisdom of Observable Love which means that someone must have observed it.  The Bible tells us there were many witnesses and we have 4 Gospel accounts recording that witness.

Have you received His acceptance?  If not, today’s a good day to observe the love He had and still has for you.  He displayed it on a Cross.  He died for you.   John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

If you have received His forgiveness and acceptance, can you do the lesser thing of forgiving others, accepting them, and showing them that wisdom of observable love … no matter how different from you they are?

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Father God, help us to appreciate the beauty of acceptance that even while we were still sinners, Jesus died to redeem Your Image in us.  Thank You, Father, that Your love is limitless and Your grace immeasurable.  Give us the courage to face our sins and repent.  Give us the grace to face our fellow man and the humility to accept him/her with observable love.  Help us to learn the meaning of other-person-centeredness and to take our eyes off ourselves.  Give us the ability to do the lesser thing of forgiving others who sin just as we have sinned … and to do it because we have been forgiven by the Sinless One whose blood paid for our acceptance.

If there’s a trait needed for these last days, it’s Courage, the Wisdom of Sensible Fortitude.  The Apostle Paul says it this way:

Be on your guard;  stand firm in the faith;  be men of courage;  be strong.  (1 Corinthians 16:13) 

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There’s nothing wild, reckless, or thoughtless about it.  Watchful.  Aware.  Firm.  Faith.  Courage.  Strength.  All of these come from an inner core of Wisdom.  A core that isn’t ruffled by what others think of you or the difficulty of the task ahead.  A core that doesn’t give way when told the impossible odds.  A core that is grounded in love of Christ and faith in Him.  A core planted and rooted in an ardent belief that it’s more important to do God’s will than anything else.

Sometimes I think that the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz has some of the best lines.  Earlier in the movie, he gives a speech on Courage.    While he still struggles with understanding it, he ends up modeling it, and at the end of the movie the Wizard puts words nearer the target.

• The Wizard: [To the Cowardly Lion] As for you, my fine friend — you’re a victim of disorganized thinking. You are under the unfortunate delusion that simply because you run away from danger, you have no courage. You’re confusing courage with wisdom! Back where I come from though we have men who are called heroes. Once a year, they take their fortitude out of mothballs and parade it down the main street of the city. And they have no more courage than you have. But — They have one thing that you haven’t got! A medal! Therefore, for meritorious conduct, extraordinary valor, conspicuous bravery against Wicked Witches, I award you the Triple Cross. You are now a member of the Legion of Courage!
• Cowardly Lion: Oh… Shucks, folks, I’m speechless!

Well, a medal doesn’t define courage and the wisdom I’m referencing is counting the costs.  Courage is displayed as a sensible fortitude, considering Jesus worth giving Him your all, the Gospel being worth your every sacrifice, and God’s truth worth upholding no matter the future. 

It’s not the nonsense of Oliver Goldsmith “He who fights and runs away may live to fight another day; But he who is battle slain can never rise to fight again.”  Where is your faith, man?  Fight and run away?  I’m not a spiritual sniper or holy hitman.  I’m planning on rising and the life I get more than whatever life I lost. Courage!  But careful courage… a sensible fortitude … because sometimes the wisdom is in discerning which battles are worth fighting.

What about you?  Are you always running around looking to pick a fight, launch every flaming email, rapid-fire tweets of outrage from high capacity magazines?  Is every statement by someone on the “other side” an opportunity for outrage … or outreach?  Better, though, from where does your courage arise when the battle is important enough to fight?  How do you know the difference?  Wisdom.

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Lord God, Help us to have courage in these last days, that act of the will to stand on an uncertain battlefield … to fight an insidious, often hidden enemy whose tactics are to steal, kill, and destroy.  Teach us to rely upon You to be our protection and to keep Your promises.  Grant that we would have wisdom for the facing of our adversary to know which battles You will fight and which ones require planting a flag, and the greater part of wisdom in letting go of battles imagined in which You have no cause for us to defend.  Help us to trust that the outcome You have planned will be for our good and Your glory no matter how it might appear to us.  Keep us from recklessness and preserve us by Your Holy Name. Amen.