Are we Christian believers? Have we come to Christ? Then there are great forces against us. This is a happy life. This is a life of proving the Lord and serving him. It is a life with great anticipation, because we are going to meet him and be with him for all eternity. It is a life with a constant flow of great evidences as we experience his power and his goodness, but it is also a life with great forces arrayed against us. There is the devil and his hosts constantly tempting, constantly bringing into our mind the fiery darts of doubt and despondency. The Christian person who thinks that there is no battle falls prey to all these things without knowing it and is brought down and rendered faithless by the enemy of souls.
Then, in addition there is the world; it is against us; it is hostile to us. It is constantly trying to pull us down from our standing. At the present time in our land we particularly face atheism, ignorance, contempt, and indifference to the things of God. Many Christians are in a working environment where there is so much to put up with, and they stand surrounded by unclean language, unclean behaviour, and it grieves them, and it is coming in like a flood. Compromised believers, believers who may or may not have truly come to Christ, also cause trouble for God people, because they engage with all kinds of worldly things which the loyal believer will desist from, and the faithful Christian is made to look ridiculous, to look like an extremist by people who compromise.
Then there is political opposition and we are seeing more and more of that these days. We don't have physical persecution in our land, but we have much political opposition and the legalising of things that are sinful and pressure is being brought against Christian people to endorse things that they cannot endorse. Even those in the teaching profession are pressurised to teach things that are immoral and wrong, which they cannot teach. Whether or not it is deliberate on the part of politicians and movers and shakers, it is certainly in the mind of Satan, who orchestrates all these things.
People say, ‘Yes but countless Christians have been destroyed by lions in times of bitter persecution; in the great Roman stadiums lions killed Christians. What is the significance of pointing out that there were examples of people, like Daniel in the lion's den, who resisted lions and were delivered from them? It shows us that if God chooses he can deliver us from anything. Far, far more believers in God in ancient times perished by lions than were ever delivered from them, but God has the power to do anything: that is the point. It is easy for us to see why God would want to preserve David, and why God would want to preserve Samson, and why God would want to preserve Daniel. He had a task for them, so it was his purpose to preserve them. That teaches us we are in the hands of God, but if God wishes to take us home, that is wonderful. If God has something further for us to do – and we may be the lowliest of people – he will see us through the very worst illness, and we shall stop the mouths of lions as it were. We are in his hands entirely and we pray to him. When you pray to him for healing, when you pray to him for recovery, yes, he is ready to be prevailed upon and to hear you, but, equally, be willing to go if that is his will.