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.”
Have you ever come to a place in your life where you suddenly realized that what you have been doing has been playing right into the Devil’s schemes? I have a dear friend who struggles with bulimia for 30 years. She has confided to me that moment of deliverance. One day as she was getting ready to purge, all she saw in that toilet bowl was Satan laughing. It was then she realized that all this time she was right where the enemy wanted her: trapped, alone, desperate, and physically dying a slow, painful death. Praise God Almighty! In that moment her Savior showed up and worked a miracle in her life.
As I was examining a very precious relationship recently, the Lord revealed to me the grip that Satan had on this other person. With the amount of worldly influences this person was involved in, all I could see was Satan laughing maniacally as this one I love was sinking deeper and deeper into a pit. It’s heartbreaking when you see the godly potential in someone’s life and they are refusing it. The tangles mess of lies that someone can be so caught up in is devastating. Not only to themselves, but also to those around us. This is why it is so important to lean on God’s truth.
I have been to that place in my life, where Satan’s lies were drowning out God’s truths. The deceit and darkness can have an iron grip on someone’s heart. The grasp that Satan had on my life was to tight the only escape I saw was death. Satan wanted me dead. The word “pale”, the word we translate into struggle is more accurate translated into wrestle, at least for the way my brain works. To literally pin your opponent to the ground by the back of the neck. This paints a very vivid picture of what Satan is trying to do to us.
It’s interesting to think that Satan had probably seen the godly potential in me before I ever did. He was working tirelessly, and still is to derail, destroy and distract. We know that Satan isn’t omnipotent, he isn’t all knowing as God is. But I think we forget sometimes that he knows God’s power, he knows he looses in the end; that is why he is working so hard to take as many with him as possible. Satan understands the might of God talked about in verse 10. He is afraid of what someone can do with God when their heart is fully submitted to him. On January 3, 2007 I had no hope, and I certainly had no idea that almost 11 years later I would be teaching a Bible study. God knew. Satan saw God’s potential in me.
It is so important for us to acknowledge where we have been and where we are. Our battles continue all around us. Sometimes they are big battles, and sometimes they are much smaller ones, but a battle all the same. God is writing our story and no matter what we face, He gets the glory. The fact that we are all sitting here is testament enough of His strength. It’s imperative we share our war stories so that we can learn from them, and so that we can teach others to not make the same mistakes.
And I know that if you are holding onto that darkness you once lived in, keeping it safe, keeping it hidden, then Satan will continue using it as a foothold to keep you in bondage. We must expose evil to the Light. For the sake of community, healing, relationship, freedom and support spit it out ladies.
Let’s shed some Light on those dark places. My daughter and I often pray that our hearts and lives would be so full of God’s light, there would be no room for darkness. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
As I pondered this morning where I was 11 years ago spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally these words spilled out:
“I posted about this some time ago but find it important to mention again.11 years ago, January 3, 2007 was a dark night for my family and friends. It was a Wednesday night. I was depressed, overwhelmed, I felt so alone. I was so entrenched by lies. The weight of my sin and burdens was so heavy that there was only one solution available. Death.
With my own hands I tried to take the life that God gave me. Everything in me wanted the sweet victory and taste of death. Oh that enemy of our souls would not deceive your heart as he did mine.
So much around this event is a mystery, but there are truths abounding too.
TRUTH: God is with me. He always was, always is and always will be-I WAS NEVER ALONE.
TRUTH: God is my JOY. And joy is a choice. I can choose to wallow in the filth ones of this world and my life, or I can choose to look to the Lord, my God and put a smile on my face. I AM NOT DEFINED BY DEPRESSION. CHRIST HAS SET ME FREE.
TRUTH: Nothing I have done, or ever will do can change God’s love for me.
TRUTH: I am loved with an everlasting love.
TRUTH: I am alive today as proof that God is real, alive and ever present.
Oh, that the God of all would speak HIS OBJECTIVE TRUTH into your heart today.
I should have died that night. What I did to my body should have killed me. But God saw something in me worth saving; I see it now too.
I am tagging those who I remember that night and the following week in hopes to remind you how great our God is and the beautiful things He has done in my life and yours.
Tonight I get to celebrate God’s victory in my life with fellow followers of Christ. Tonight I get to join hundreds at God’s altar and sing His praise. Today I get to proclaim that God is my exceeding JOY.”
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