Psalm 73:25 – Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You.

THEME OF THE DAY. FIGHTING FOR CHRIST’S SUPREMACY. I think we would be hard-pressed to find a more appropriate verse than today’s scripture as the goal and daily pursuit in the Christian life. Is it not the cry of our hearts to be able to say with the Psalmist, “There is nothing on earth that I desire besides You”? Let’s expand the Psalmist’s words in this paraphrase, “I have no one or no thing in my life that equals to or exceeds my desire and satisfaction I have in You.”

Yes, this is to be the daily pursuit and goal in the Christian life. It is why we are Christians. Augustine’s famous quote captures this thought well, “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee”, Confessions, Book 1. Yet, every Christian knows the intense struggle it is to see this realized and experienced. Each of us knows the tremendous fight it is to have Christ maintain His supremacy in our hearts and lives. We have formidable foes seeking to dethrone Him in our hearts as our chief delight and pursuit. And to this end, we want to direct our nugget; identifying the three foes and their primary tactic used to get Christ to assume less than the highest place of affections in our hearts and lives.

First, we face a crafty devil. Beginning in the Garden of Eden with our first parents, Adam and Eve, and continuing to this very day in our lives, he is at work to move our hearts away from Christ. And what is his chief tactic? It may well be the work of distraction. With great skill, he injects distractions in our lives in various forms; mental, emotion, and physical and this primarily to pull us away from disciplined time in the Word and prayer. Whether it be the distractions in our homes or on a Lord’s Day morning, he will do all he can to get our focus off Christ. Should he succeed, the Lord Jesus will not be the supreme delight and joy in our lives. And how do we defeat him? Holy Spirit empowered discipline to say, “no” to distracting things which take us off the Word and prayer.

Our second foe seeking to dethrone Christ as the chief object of affection in our hearts is the world. How does this foe do its work in us? Busyness in the wrong things. Just look around at people. They are always in a hurry; always active; always filling life with activities to do and events to attend. And Christians are not immune to the powerful forces of the world seeking to busy their lives with all its alluring pleasures. Should believers spend more time and give more energy to activities of the world than of the Word, the throne room in their hearts will reflect their choice. Christians must evaluate their lives by this criterion, “Are we more committed to and excited about worldly things than spiritual things?” If so, our Lord will not be the chief object of our affections.

The final foe we face that seeks to keep Christ from being the chief desire and supreme source of satisfaction in our lives is our flesh. And what does our flesh exploit to draw us away from Christ? It is our bent toward comfort and ease. Sin has created a spirit of sloth or laziness in us, especially spiritual laziness. The flesh will never surrender its craving for comfort and ease. It will never stop fighting our resolve to bring it under control to pursue Christ. And friends, don’t ever think knowing Christ and having Him as the supreme object in our lives will be achieved without the most strenuous of efforts. In fact, knowing Christ, enjoying Christ, and adoring Christ will require the greatest amount of self-control and discipline of anything we have ever undertaken. And that because having Christ is the greatest thing in life which will always be opposed by the greatest foes in life. But, friends, fight for His supremacy as the chief object of our affections. It is why we are saved and the sole source of our contentment, now and forever.

PRAYER: “Lord, help me to fight hard the foes that seek to rule my heart and draw me away from You.”

QUOTE: “Christ is worthy to fight for Him to have supremacy in all areas of our lives.”