January 15, 2025 Devo

January 15th, 2025

“Walking Through the Psalms”
“Answer me when I call to you, O God who declares me innocent. Free me from my troubles. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer.” – Psalm 4:1 (NLT)
“Head Games”

“Don’t let them get in your head.” Have you ever heard that expression? It’s the idea that what gets your mind, gets YOU! And there is a lot of truth in it. Playing sports taught me a lot about mind games. Athletes know that you don’t have to be bigger, better, faster, or stronger to win. All you have to do is convince your opponent they’re already beaten.
If that makes sense to you, then you’ll understand why the Enemy works overtime playing mind games with us. He tries to paralyze us with fear. He tries to overwhelm us with worry and anxiety. He uses guilt and shame to get us to wave the white flag and retreat into a cave of defeat and despair. All of those tools—fear, worry, and shame are shackles that the Enemy uses to keep us in bondage and make us believe that we might as well give up. He doesn’t have to defeat us if he can just get in our heads and get us to throw in the towel.
That’s why it’s so important not to lose sight of God in difficult times. The more we stare at our struggle, the bigger the struggle becomes. And the bigger the struggle becomes, the more helpless we seem against it. God fades into the background. We forget who He is. We forget what He’s done. We forget that we are not alone in the battle and that the One who is in us is greater than the one who is the world! Focus ON God and the whole game changes.
That’s why you hear David cry out in this psalm, “Free me from my troubles. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer.” In the middle of his battle, he turned to his Commander-In-Chief. He knew that what he couldn’t do, God COULD do. As he cried out for God’s strength and grace, he was reclaiming the truth that the battle had already been won. The One who had fought for him before would give him victory again.
Is that your need today? Are you feeling the weight of the shackles of the Enemy? Are you bound by fear, worry, shame, or doubt? Don’t you dare give in to the Enemy’s head games. Fix your eyes on the Author and Finisher of your faith. He who is with you is greater than he who is against you. Shake off those shackles and reclaim your victory. God can do what you cannot. Faith beats fear every time. That’s God’s Word for you today.