Living a life that Matters

Anytime I go away for a few days and spend some time with God, Satan is waiting around the corner ready to derail my spiritual high with trials and temptations. After the All In Retreat, I was hit with all sorts of trials over a course of a week. I like to say I deal with anxiety and stress pretty well. But I know the war Satan wages in me is in my thoughts. I’m such a deep thinker that it can really take my focus off of God and my mind will go all over the place and look for quick fixes to ease those thoughts.

After spending a long night in prayer at a Hillsong worship event, I decided to fast for a few days to really focus on God and ask for peace and wisdom. I knew taking myself out of community would be difficult for me. I like to process my thoughts through communication with others. But I was thankful to see that our Young Professionals group was doing a three-day devotion on spiritual warfare during my fast. It gave me the opportunity to read comments of the warfare my community has been going through and relate them to my life.

Here are some key thoughts:

We are in a war. So many people today ignore conflict and unpleasant situations. Satan is real and he doesn’t go away. We live in a broken world. It doesn’t mean we walk around worried and stressed about what Satan is going to do next. It means we need to be prepared and ready for warfare. 2 Corinthians 2:11 tells us not to be ignorant of Satan’s ways of scheming. But be prepared by knowing your enemy and knowing who you are in Christ.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds

– 2 Corinthians 10:4

We cannot face Satan toe-to-toe on our own. But we can face him with the authority of the name of Christ. This devotion talked about how we need to meditate and pray in the name of Jesus as we face opposition. I took out some time to fast because I needed to be filled with the Spirit before I face my upcoming trials. We need that constant reminder that it is Christ who already died and overcame the world (John 16:33) that goes before us each and every day. So when we feel frustrated, we can rest in the Spirit of grace that is already inside of us and know that God is fighting our battles for us.

Currently in Young Professionals we are doing a series called I Declare War. We all have our battles within and we all react differently to them. It is time we stop being our own worst enemy and declare war on the devil’s tactics so we can be that person God intends us to be.