As we continue to declare with David “The hope of the faithful, and the Messiah’s victory”, this declaration dispels any threats of the enemy that we sometimes imagine. The Bible warns us in 1 Peter 5:8&9 “Be sober, be vigilant, because our adversary the Devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith”. We live in a world where we hear the roar of evil all the time and if we begin to doubt the greatness of our God we can begin to fear which robs us of our confidence in God. We must keep reminding ourselves that Satan’s power has been broken and as a child of God we are protected by the goodness and greatness of our God. Listen to Verse 3 how the Lord describes us “ And to the saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight”. We have just come through the last two years where the Church was continually under attack and sadly many people took their eyes off the greatness of our God and the truth that God is in control and allowed their light to grow dim. However, this year we have seen God at work in His Church. In the Church where I belong, we are seeing people being born again every time we meet and recently 42 people were baptised in water a few Sunday night’s ago. We see evidence of the Lord declaring that His children are the excellent ones in whom is His delight. It is so encouraging to know what God thinks of us when we choose to wholly follow Him. This is a good reason to continually check the way that we are living and see if the things of this world are beginning to attract us. Because if they are then we need to repent and readjust our focus to be only on the Lord and His ways. In Verse 4 David declares what happens when we stray from the Lord. “Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god; their drink offerings of blood I will not offer nor take up their names on my lips”. This verse very clearly states that when you turn away from following God, the Godly presence and joy disappear this is something that we need to be aware of because if we have a close daily relationship with the Lord, we know very quickly that we are going away from our God. This is where we need to be strong and admit that we are heading in the wrong direction. Sadly I have found out that if I do not repent it becomes easier to sin and move away from God. The second thing David highlights is that people who are away from God can act as though they love God. David said that he would not participate in their deception. This is where we can stand in the gap and pray for people who are drifting away from the Lord. It is so important that we keep our spiritual eyes open and pray that someone will have the opportunity to speak into their situation and encourage them to turn around. This is a very important part to play and everyone can do it when we are putting God first in our lives.