Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.
I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods. I will not pour out their libations of blood or take up their names on my lips.
LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Our Founding Fathers defined freedom of religion as the freedom to worship God in any way we desire. This was a repudiation of forced membership in the Church of England with its pagan ritual and dead orthodoxy. It was not intended to prohibit or even limit a citizen’s public expression of faith in God. But in the fifties an attack on school prayer was based on the interpretation that freedom of religion included freedom from religion, and that has since been expanded into a prohibition against almost every public form of Christian religious activity.
Lately it seems clear that freedom from religion will soon apply only to Christianity, as other religions publicize their beliefs, promote their views, and even teach their doctrines in our public schools, with official approval.
But even though He’s been kicked out of our schools and public venues, our Lord is always with us. He’s given us unlimited free “anytime” minutes, He’s never too busy to answer, and we never need an appointment. For all the times we ask for and receive His guidance or assistance, there are countless others when He intervenes preemptively without our awareness, over-ruling the agendas of evil, beating back attacks against us, clearing the way before us and then acting as our rear guard. He wraps His Holy Spirit around us like a shield, fending off the fiery darts of the wicked one. (Ephe. 6:16)
In short He loves us so much He can’t keep His eyes off us, searching to and fro through out the world for ways to show Himself strong to us (2 Chron. 16:9). He’s the author of all our victories, the Giver of every good and perfect gift, the One to Whom all praise, honor, and glory are due.
“You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed— I, and not some foreign god among you. (Isaiah 43:10-12)
Maybe they’ll succeed in taking Him out of our public lives but they’ll never get Him out of our hearts. And that’s really the only place that counts.