Isaiah 54:17 No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, says the Lord.”

The sovereign hand of God works through Christ to establish and maintain His Children in righteousness. Not in the righteousness of man’s works, but in the righteousness of Christ: “and their righteousness is of me, says the Lord.”

Philippians 3:9 “And be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:”,

1 Corinthians 1:30 “And of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:”

The righteousness of Christ in the Child of God is the base from which the actions come that preserve the Saints in times of oppression and in times when fear and terror are moving in on us like a storm;
Christ’s righteousness in the Child of God makes strait paths for the feet,
– it trusts in God’s providence,
– it hears His voice and is obedient to His commandments,
– it’s the shield of faith that stops the enemies darts from piercing,
– it’s the wisdom that denies the desires of the flesh that lead to death,
– it’s the humility that takes up the cross and perseveres in all these ways with love.

Righteousness says “The LORD is on my side; I won’t fear: what can man do to me?” Psalm 118:6.

The protective care (providence) of God toward His Children isn’t delivered dependant on our earning it.
By Gods grace, when the Saint’s faith diminishes through the storm, God is still there to save;
Remember when Peter was walking to Christ on the water, he observed the wind and started to lose faith and began sinking into the cold rough dark sea, but Christ was so close that He held Peters hand and drew him up out onto the water.

2 Timothy 2:13
“if we are faithless, He remains faithful,
for He cannot deny Himself.”

God isn’t far from each of us, regardless of the adversities God’s plans never fail because the adversities and all visible and invisible elements and beings have boundaries of freedom of operation in which they act.

Job 38
4 Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
    or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together
    and all the angels shouted for joy?
8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors
    when it burst forth from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment
    and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10 when I fixed limits for it
    and set its doors and bars in place,
11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
    here is where your proud waves halt’?
12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
    or shown the dawn its place,
13 that it might take the earth by the edges
    and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
    its features stand out like those of a garment.
15 The wicked are denied their light,
    and their upraised arm is broken.
16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
    or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been shown to you?
    Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
    Tell me, if you know all this.
19 “What is the way to the abode of light?
    And where does darkness reside?
20 Can you take them to their places?
    Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
21 Surely you know, for you were already born!
    You have lived so many years!
22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
    or seen the storehouses of the hail,
23 which I reserve for times of trouble,
    for days of war and battle?
24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
    or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, 
and a path for the thunderstorm,
26 to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert,
27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?
28 Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb comes the ice? 
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
30 when the waters become hard as stone, 
when the surface of the deep is frozen?
31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? 
Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? 
Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?
34 “Can you raise your voice to the clouds
    and cover yourself with a flood of water?
35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
    Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who gives the ibis wisdom
    or gives the rooster understanding?
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
    Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
38 when the dust becomes hard
    and the clods of earth stick together?
39 “Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
    and satisfy the hunger of the lions
40 when they crouch in their dens
    or lie in wait in a thicket?
41 Who provides food for the raven
    when its young cry out to God
    and wander about for lack of food?

We have such a small comprehension of Gods infinite ability, and this will always be the case, but the more we rest in His promises, the more we’ll live in the joy of them for His glory.

Romans 8:32
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—
how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

APO02Dec2020