whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life -
of whom shall I be afraid?”
(Psalm 27:1)
In “Living Free”, Beth Moore tells us that the word stronghold appears almost 50 times in the OT as opposed to only 1 time in the NT. I am not really sure why that is the case, but in the Old Testament the word stronghold was used to describe places that the Israelites hid from their enemies in. A place of safety. A stronghold is a fortress or a refuge. The definition says it is a “defensible place”. It means ‘to be strong for’ or ‘to be exalted‘. We can use the term stronghold to refer to a wonderful attribute of God.
David tells us in 2 Samuel 22:3 that the Lord is our stronghold and refuge. In this sense, a stronghold is a good thing. When we rely on God to be the place of safety in our lives - the place of rest - then He becomes our stronghold.
But on the flip side, a stronghold can be just what it says. It can by anything that has ‘strong hold’ on our lives and that isn’t always a good thing. It can represent something false in our lives. A false stronghold is something that goes against the very nature of God. It is in direct opposition to the knowledge of God. It tries to be bigger to us than God is. Simply put -stronghold = bondage. It can cause us to be anxious, overwhelmed, defeated and weary. It steals our focus off of the Lord and it can keep us from living the abundant life in Christ that He desires for us.
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Cor 10:5)
In order for us to rid ourselves of these false strongholds, we have to rid ourselves of the lies that Satan would have us believe. We have to stand firm in the Truth! The Truth is Jesus.
In order for us to head down the right path we have to listen to the one who has the right directions. If we spend time in God’s Word - the map for our walk - we will have the strength and the knowledge we need to release those strongholds in our lives that are holding us captive.
Let’s trade that stronghold of bondage for a stronghold of freedom in Christ!
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)
7 comments:
Amen Beth! I pray that someone who doesn't know about spiritual warfare will stumble upon this post.
Many blessings to you!
Beth
I instantly went to the thoughts of reversal of destiny that we are learning through Esther.
Stronghold from the enemy to a STRONG HOLD ON CHRIST!
Love to YOU
I want that Stong Hold to Christ. I do not want to be found with ANY false gods. I just want to be found leaning on HIM.
Thanks for the post, thank you for your prayers. I can see your spiritual light shining through on your blog. Your love and desire to pray for people in which you have never met, that, my dear, is the LOVE that ONLY comes from above.
Tessa :)
i absolutely loved Beth's Breaking Free, which must be similar to Living Free! This is a great reminder of where our true safe place is.
I've enjoyed visiting you! Your family is beautiful.
Thanks for this post, Beth! Praise His Name for being our stronghold of freedom...
Bless you,
Susan
Such an important post to muse over.
You wrote:
If we spend time in God’s Word - the map for our walk - we will have the strength and the knowledge we need to release those strongholds in our lives that are holding us captive.
This is such a freedom trail when we are set free from the bondage that satan holds over us at times. Freedom and healing come from His Word. God helped me see one of those strongholds that the enemy was holding over my head for almost 40 years - all the way back to childhood. When I asked God [after He had revealed it to me] What do I do with it now?
He said, "Give it to Me - and from now on - I AM YOUR STRONGHOLD." In the NIV it speaks of God [Christ] as our Stronghold in Ps. 9:9, Ps 18:2, Psalm 27:1, Psalm 37:39, Psalm 43:2, Psalm 52:7 - making a choice for that, Ps. 144.
When Christ is my Stronghold I AM BOUND TO Him and BY Him!!
Looking UPward and Choosing JOY,
Stephanie
[Time to FLY]
I honestly think I have missed that all these years, that Jesus is our stronghold, and a stronghold is a GOOD thing in that case. I love it!
Thank you! I will be studying those verses more in the morning.
And thank you for coming to my blog! I can already tell this is going to be a blessing for me too. And more importantly, I hope I can be a blessing as well!
:)
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