Psalm 44:9-26

9But You have cast us off and put us to shame,
And You do not go out with our armies.
10You make us turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.
11You have given us up like sheep intended for food,
And have scattered us among the nations.
12You sell Your people for next to nothing,
And are not enriched by selling them.
13You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
A scorn and a derision to those all around us.
14You make us a byword among the nations,
A shaking of the head among the peoples.
15My dishonor is continually before me,
And the shame of my face has covered me,
16Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
Because of the enemy and the avenger.
17All this has come upon us;
But we have not forgotten You,
Nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant.
18Our heart has not turned back,
Nor have our steps departed from Your way;
19But You have severely broken us in the place of jackals,
And covered us with the shadow of death.
20If we had forgotten the name of our God,
Or stretched out our hands to a foreign god,
21Would not God search this out?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
22Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
23Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord?
Arise! Do not cast us off forever.
24Why do You hide Your face,
And forget our affliction and our oppression?
25For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
Our body clings to the ground.
26Arise for our help,
And redeem us for Your mercies’ sake.
-Psalm 44:9-26

After reading yesterday's devotion you may have been inspired and ready to wage warfare differently. Opening up today's devotion to find out what is next in the passage may be very discouraging. Israel cries out that the Lord had abandoned them insisting that they had been loyal to the Lord. The Lord also does not bring any charge against them. Instead, for the sake of the Lord they are killed all the day long, being counted as sheep for the slaughter. This is the result of a holy war waged for the sake of the Lord. This passage is referenced also by Paul in Romans 8 in the context of severe persecution.

The fact of the matter is that we will go through this life with suffering. I will make no such promise that the Lord just magically makes it all go away and the life of the Christian is all sunshine and rainbows. On the contrary, we as believers are promised even more hardship and suffering being those who are hated by the world. However, the way we wage war and suffer through these changes our approach and understanding of trial. Let's take a look at the context that Paul uses verse 22.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-Romans 8:35-39

This is why a heavenly mindset is so important. The perspective that we have regarding our trials and tribulations changes everything. What we run into is that we love our flesh so much and the comfort and convenience of our modern lifestyle that when something disrupts that we become hopeless and distraught. None of this is to say that our trials are not trialing and that the hurt we may have is not hurtful, but that is not to be our focus. If anyone would have a right to complain it would be Paul. If anyone had a right to say his treatment was unfair or unjust it would be Paul. Yet he says that we are more than conquerors. Why? The battle we are waging as believers is not the pursuit of happiness and to dwell in comfort. It is to glorify our God and seek to dwell with Him. We are moving toward eternity in the pursuit of holiness. At the end of the day, we have victory, for we are not separated from the love of God.

Take heart and be encouraged. We fight in a war that really matters for a prize greater than any other. With such a perspective we can truly rejoice in the midst of trial and tribulation. Do not let trifling matters distract you from the incredible joy of serving the Lord. We are the redeemed of the Lord.