The battle

"The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead."  -Psalm 143:3

Beautiful thought to start the day off with, right??  Ha!  Tell me about it!!  I woke up this morning and happened upon a moment that I "thought" was a gift from God.....then, without warning, the enemy raced onto the scene and led an attack that I was not expecting and was not ready for....at all!

My beautiful moment of thanksgiving was rudely interrupted and it's taken me hours to recover, I'm still standing on shakey legs.  I guess the thing that I'm trying to convey here this morning, friends, is that there is one who seeks to kill, destroy and devour.  He will do it at whatever the costs, because for him, there is nothing to lose and the greater the cost on our end, the more victorious the battle is for him.  No, the enemy isn't your husband, or boyfriend, or bestfriend.  It's not your mother or your father or even your children.  It's Satan.  Now, I know that we don't care to use the "s" word, or to talk about him for fear of giving him more power than he deserves (which, by the way, is NONE).  But I think that we are foolish Christians for ignoring the adversary.  If we do not talk about his schemes and plans than we are walking unarmed into a horrendous battle.

So here's how the attack went......and I think it's safe to say, that this is his typical M.O.

1.  I was unsuspecting......1 Peter 5:8 says "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."  This tells me that the enemy is ALWAYS on guard....looking for opportunities and we must be on guard and ready!!

2. He hit me where it hurts.......don't be fooled in thinking that satan doesn't know you intimately.  He does.  In this attack, he worked through my children.  Knowing that I am working on teaching my children to love and serve others, he went for the soft spot and highlighted an area where they clearly were not following their teachings, not in just one instance, but in several, one after the other.....that leads perfectly to number three

3. He took over my words.  Instead of responding in the Grace the God offers, I spewed out some nastiness, used words that I wished I hadn't and gave him permission to ruin my entire day!  I "reacted" instead of "responding".  When we react, we just jump off the cuff and let it roll.  When we respond instead, we have taken the appropriate amount of time to process what happened and we choose our words and course of action wisely.  I should have calmly and lovingly addressed the issue and proceded to guide them to the foot of the cross. (yes, that is completely possible)

4.  He took over my thoughts.  I immediately gave him permission to ruin my day, like I said above.  I believe that I even claimed several times that "Now I'm pissed off and everyone is going to have a horrible day!!"  Yikes!!!  I may as well have put on the devil suit and paraded around the house with my pitchfork!!  I also allowed myself to get distracted by nonsense instead of doing my morning devo's (which is the second day that I've missed - boo), I started feeling like we are a housefull of hypocrites (which is true) but I was beating myself up and feeling foolish!  I held onto the anger and the shame and I was ready to make everyone pay for it!!!  Man, that's ugly.

But that's not the end of it!!!  From almost the second that it started, I could feel God's hand and words in my heart and mouth.  I knew the choice that I had to make and I could literally feel the battle rage inside of me.  I was offered His grace time and time again, and I feel like each time it was offered, I was one step closer to taking it.  Turning around on a wrong path that we've started down is not easy.  There are a whole lot of nasty arrows that are flying our way, especially when we decide to turn around.  Fear, failure, embarrassment, weakness, etc.  We have to learn and trust that His ways are better.  That the power that we give the enemy only exists if we allow it to.  The very moment that we throw down our weapons and raise the white flag - God comes rushing in with all of His goodness and mercy and forgiveness.  He scoops us up and cleans up the mess!  We don't really even have to clean up the mess!

"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace."
Acts 20:24

I believe that it all started around 8:00 this morning.  It's now 11:00, I've been in battle for just about 2 and a half hours.  He did wreak havoc on our morning, we recovered a bit and have moved forward.  Forgiveness was offered and I'm hoping and praying that it was accepted on all accounts.  I'm thinking that next time I won't resist "The Way" as long as I did this morning....and there will be a next time, trust me.

So, I leave you with this:

Ephesians 6:10-18

The Armor of God

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

God bless <3 Lorraine