Something that has been on my heart this week especially is just realizing that spiritual warfare is real. Satan is real. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to get in the middle of whatever he can and stir things up beyond what we ever thought they would turn into. We too often underestimate Satan's attack and let him crawl into to situations without recognizing that he slowly took a situation from good to bad, then from bad to worse. We as Christians must realize that satan will do anything to prevent you from becoming the person God has planned for you to be. I mean God never wants us to fear the enemy's threats, but a key step in spiritual victory comes when we acknowledge that we have an enemy who poses a real threat. Satan's strategic plan is laid out to entice you to sin and to drift your devotion to God most the time without you even recognizing that its happening. He uses things like, greed, selfishness, disappointment, and pride just to name a few. He also watches how we react to a certain situation. If there is an opportunity for him to weave his evil mischief into our thoughts, he will take it. This is the reason we need to know how to detect , identify, and protect ourselves from the destruction that comes as a result of the enemy's tactics.
Here's the deal God doesn't intend for us to go through life blindly, just as you wouldn't march into a war without a battle plan and a map of the combat zone. God expects us to consider the consequences of our actions and the responsibility we have been given as believers. Even Paul cautions in Eph 5:15-17 to, " Walk not as unwise mean but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is."
It may seem really hard and impossible at the point your at in your life, maybe your struggling with a sin, maybe your struggling with a temptation or thoughts. Let's get real, why not?? I'm just going to lay it out here, haha, no need to be fake. For me, I have been struggling with a whopping dissapointment. I have let Satan just pound on me from every direction. I have prayed, and cried out to God weeping for him to make things known to me and for him to bring restoration, and for whatever reason he hasn't yet. I know in my heart and mind that he has a plan and is in total control, but that doesn't seem to make it any easier and it definitely doesn't make it less painful. And now and again I will allow Satan to creep in and just put me in bondage. There have been times when I literally had trouble breathing because i could feel something just pushing in on my chest and feel my heart aching, but in all that God is still faithful. He always finds a way to remind me that he has promised to be our strength in times of difficulty, heartache, and brokenness. Here's what God is so faithfully teaching me through it. Take David for example. Saul knew that David was going to be the next King over Israel. God used Saul's unbridled jealousy to force David to wait until he was ready to become king. Disappointment is an emotional response to some failed expectation or some desire that we have. It is a land-mine that explodes with heartache and sorrow. But what did David do?? He prayed,"Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, for my soul takes refuge in You; and in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by."(Ps. 57:1) David knew his survival and his future depended on one thing- God's faithfulness. While David did not know the future, he realized that he knew someone who did. God-who is infinite in knowledge- can take the most troublesome circumstances an turn them around for good(Rom. 8:28). We conquer disappointment by standing strong in our faith and not wavering through doubt or self-pity. God has promised us victory over the very things that the enemy would use for your defeat. All we have to do is settle in our heart that God is greater than any weapon that Satan can bring against you. No matter how horrendous Satan's attack may seem, God is all powerful. (check these out: Lamentations 3:22-23, Eph. 6:10-13, Phil. 4:13, 1 Cor. 10:13, Ps. 139:11-12) Standing on the other side of any situation you can begin to see where Satan slowly infiltrated his way in and started to cause chaos. It is something that unfortunately this side of heaven we are going to have to put up with and learn how to battle against. We're going to be thrown into situations where Satan is going to tempt us in every direction and every way possible to cause disruption in our lives, disruption in our families, and disruption in the church. It's hard, it's really hard. It's hard not to just want to to take things into your own hands and vindicate yourself in the way that you feel is best. Trust me, I've lived it. It's hard to trust God to be your vindicator especially when precious relationships are involved. The reality is it's a lot harder said than done. There are a lot of tears and a lot of pain, and it doesn't really go away. It may mask itself for a while, but it always comes back and hurts just has bad or worse than before. Even just this week I have found myself hurting and literally weeping over circumstances that are just out of my control. It's so evident now to me that that's why God calls us to be seekers of peace. That's why God's ultimate goal for his earth is restoration, so why wouldn't it be the same for his children??!! So because of what we know to be true, all we can do is put our trust in him. We can fast and pray and ask him to bring restoration in His way and His time. We can learn to be sensitive to His spirit and voice. Mostly though, i feel like we just need to keep an eternal perspective. That no matter what chaos Satan causes here on earth. It will not last. God will vindicate us. He will be the final judge. One day we will all be at peace together and we will no longer have to worry or think about the treats of satan. If we just keep our eyes on fixated on our God, he will sustain us, carry us, hold us, love us, and strengthen us to continue living for him amongst what is going on around us. If we can train ourselves to see the world in that way, I think in a catch 22 kind of way, we would see Satan and his subtle attacks being a lot less effective. It's all about perspective. Sooooo all that to say Keep on keeping on and in the words of my favorite Journey song, Don't stop believin. haha :) Love you.
Ran
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