Satan cannot read your mind, but he pays close attention to your words. He looks for clues to what will hinder you and what will cause you to stumble. He doesn't know what is going on in your mind unless you tell him, but he is constantly planting thoughts there. Ever have a day that every thought coming into your mind is negative, check to see which shoulder you are allowing him to sit on. He is the negative thought, the temptation, the deceptive voice that truly wants to kill and destroy you and your family.
If he can make you believe that God doesn't care, your family doesn't love you or you are just plain alone, he is going to do his best to make it happen. And if he can make you think you are unworthy of love, God's or your family's, that is one of his greatest weapons. Now I'm not writing today to tell you how great satan is.
I'm writing to tell you how defeated he is! God is greater! Every day and every time God is greater! You just have to trust God, you just have to turn to Him. You have to rebuke satan and stop listening to him. He can't hear your thoughts but he needs to hear you tell him out loud that he is a liar, he is defeated, he is NOT going to destroy your family!
He can take his best shot and he still can't win. Now does that mean there will not be bad days, no it doesn't. Does it mean you will never be sick or lose a loved one, nope. What it means is that Jesus is there with you every step of the way and He is your comfort, your peace.
Yesterday morning I felt bad, not going to lie. I had a number of things frustrating me. Then I got a call my daughter was on the way to the hospital so off I went. I hate sitting at hospitals. But there we sat for hours. Thankfully her issues were not overly serious. As I sat there I realized chances of making it to church last night were slim and I admit it, I let satan get the better of me there, I gave in without much of fight, I mean you can't stop time and the clock was ticking. But even as I said there thinking I probably would not make it, I whispered 'even if I miss church tonight satan, you are not going to win'. I wasn't fighting the race of the clock but I knew I had to let the devil know that I knew he was up to his old tricks.
Then my granddaughter called. She was crying, she wanted to go to her church and unless we got out of the hospital quickly it wasn't going to happen. Hearing her cries my resolve to do everything in my power to get her to church rose. A little bit later my daughter was released. But getting her where she needed to go and getting my granddaughter to church still looked almost impossible. I delivered my daughter and looked at the clock. At best we would be late, the question was how late.
I called Erin's other grandmother, told her the situation, could we make it work to meet and get Erin to church? She said yes, she could meet me with Erin. So off I raced, praying all the way that we could make the time frame work.
We were late, only about 8 minutes but as she ran toward her class, I looked up and said 'you didn't win devil, we made it'. You see Sunday we were out of town so we weren't able to be at our church, last Wednesday I was dealing with a situation with my aunt and the Sunday night prior Erin was sick so we were homesick for our church. I admit that I was a bit depressed when I thought that we would miss again last night. I really didn't feel good and I was so tired, I just didn't think I could push through to make it.
Yet the cries of my granddaughter put a fight in me, her heart breaking ignited a flame that said 'I have to do something about this'. Just as the cries of His children makes our Lord rise up to our defense, it made me straighten up and say 'I will not let satan win'. As I look back now I realize how gracious God was to me. He knew I was weak but He knew where my fight was and He directed me to it. Just as He responds to the prayers of His children, He knew I would respond to the plead of our granddaughter.
Parents, do you love your child(ren)? Grandparents, would you move heaven and earth for those grandkids? Our love is nothing compared to God's! He hears us and He answers us! It may not be in our time or it may not be the answer we wanted but He cannot ignore the cries of His children. Satan, step back because my God is greater! I am not match for the devil, but I have a Father and Big Brother who have defeated him on every hand and they will continue to do so. That is my hope, that is my strength, that is my victory!!
No comments:
Post a Comment