One great advantage the believers have over non-believers is the law - - the written set of standards - - the unchangeable counsel of God. Without the standard, according to Proverbs 13, here is what the wicked get:
o Can’t hear correction (1)
o Contention (10)
o Destroyed, death (14)
o Hard way (15)
o Open folly (16)
o Mischief (17)
o Poverty and shame (18)
o Destroyed {20)
o Pursued by evil(21)
o Loss of inheritance (22)
o Hunger (25)
“Much food is in the tillage of the poor, but there is that is destroyed for want of judgement.” I’ve thought of this as meaning that the poor do not have judgement, so they destroy their own wealth. But someone else explained it as a second party not having judgement which results in making the poor unproductive, such as the government promoting big time agri-business over family farms. It happened also when the government set laws that prevented Fathers living in households that were collecting certain types of welfare. The intention was to keep truly indolent men from taking advantage of a "free ride", but it forced some truly well-intentioned men from caring for their families and made for many single parent households.
I prayed: "Lord, please foil all attempts to destroy the family. Family is your idea and I think you want them strong. Fill fathers and mothers and sons and daughters with your Spirit so they will see and avoid the snares of the enemy. Let the very things that were intended for harm prosper and strengthen families. Let the wicked devices fall back upon the heads of those that formed them."
