Thankful Thursday: Thankful That God Has Won The Victory

It's Thankful Thursday.  I had to sit and think about what I should write today. Not that there aren't many things to be thankful for, but what has the Lord been trying to teach me this week.  Friends, there's a battle being waged against me--against my family?--a spiritual battle.  How do I know?  Well, I see God at work in and through us--God's opened up opportunities for us to serve and disciple, and He's showing us our sin, and placing within a yearning for more obedience, more submission to His will--but I also am experiencing an unusual amount and kind of temptation or oppression.

All week my dreams have been disturbing.  On the internet, inappropriate photos came to my eyes in places where I wasn't expecting them, and our filter didn't prevent them.  I've been feeling it was difficult to do what was the norm for me (and tempted to throw off disciplined living), and it was an uphill fight to keep on keeping on, to think and do what I knew the Lord wanted all week. I did, but feeling a weight pushing against me.  I have been crying out to the Lord, and asking Him to bind and rebuke satan and his emissaries all week, in the Name and by the power that raised Jesus from the dead. 

So, how does this relate to Thankful Thursday, you ask? Well, I am so thankful that Jesus Christ has won the victory!! I am so grateful that the war has already been decided and I'm on the winning side!  These are satan's last ditch efforts at a losing battle.

There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man:  but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

(1 Corinthians 10:13)

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 Corinthians 15:57)

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

(1 John 5:4)

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

(1 John 4:4)

I would be remiss if I didn't also say how thankful I am for you, dear friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, who pray for me.  Your prayers are powerful in taking down strongholds.  And your friendship is very precious to me. 


To participate and read other thankful thoughts, visit Lynn, at Spiritually Unequal Marriage. Thanks, Lynn, so much for hosting this month!

Spiritual Attack and Fretting (Part 2): Timely Tips on Tuesday

Read "Spiritual Attack and Fretting (Part 1)."

Reading from Psalms and Proverbs is excellent, but God never ceases to amaze me also by using whatever Scripture is on the schedule in my daily reading plan (I use the "Read Through the Bible in a Year" plan from Discipleship Journal) to speak directly to my heart and situation.

Help for Fretting

God also uses unique and personal ways to teach me and this is how He did it this time:

1. First, He reminded me that every time I feel truly overwhelmed, and am sure there's absolutely no way I can accomplish all I have to do, He answers my cry for help by removing some upcoming thing I've been fretting about. One or all of my responsibilities or scheduled events is canceled because of an illness, or weather, or something (e.g. "Major snowstorm shuts down all travel in Minnesota.") This has happened so often that I have almost come to expect it!  Which in some strange way has helped me not to worry!  What's to worry about if God is going to cancel everything before it happens anyway?!  But He had to remind me of this in my Quiet Time on Monday morning. Then, later in the day, He confirmed this rebuke of my fretting when He allowed my daughter to come down with strep throat! (Not that I'm rejoicing that my daughter got sick!) But, this canceled the event I'd been fretting about: dinner guests coming Wednesday night!
2. Then, on Tuesday, God sat me down and gave me a "talking-to"! And He used my very own words to do it, as I exhorted and encouraged a friend on the phone "to lean on the Lord, to trust Him to help her, to not grow weary in well-doing and to finish the course well and persevere."  Everything I needed to hear and do myself! In giving me the opportunity to help someone else, God helped me. (Isn't He wonderful?!) 
3. God finished off this lesson on fretting when He used the words of people close to me to humble me, and I felt very broken, but when I went to my knees before Him, I was now in a very teachable state, as I cried out to Him in prayer. I realized and remembered, there on my knees, that I have been asking for "grace" a lot lately, and that in the Bible, God says, "He giveth grace to the humble." ("But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4:6-7)  Instead of worrying and fretting, I needed to be humble and accept the grace that is mine through Christ, and believe that "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Philippians 4:13)  So, I thanked Him for the trials I had recently come through and the painful, humbling words I had just received, because they were the prerequisites for the grace that I'd been praying for and needed.

God was good to show me that He loves me, He has everything under control, and there's nothing to worry about!

Spiritual Attack and Fretting (Part 1): Timely Tips on Tuesday

Read "Spiritual Attack and Fretting (Part 2)".
We have had company staying with us for 10 days: my brother and nephew came a week ago Saturday, and then friends (a young couple with their 3-month-old baby) arrived last Wednesday and left this morning. My brother and nephew went to my sister's for the weekend, but came back yesterday and will be with us until Saturday. It's a little busy around here!


So, I decided this week I would re-post some articles which I have written in the past, which you may not have read, or if you have, contain messages which we need to be reminded of (me included!) and I think you will enjoy! I'll also try to post some photos throughout the week, as time permits. Please continue to comment, as I am checking my blog daily, and love the encouragement of your prayers and comments! I'm thinking about all of you and praying for you!

The following is an article I wrote last September, at a very, very busy time and one in which I was fighting spiritual attack and the temptation to fret and worry! Here is what God taught me during that time! (Thank You so much, Lord!)

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,
from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord,
which made heaven and earth."

Psalm 121:1

Sometimes I forget about spiritual attack.  I mean, I know it's there in a general sense.  But, sometimes I don't recognize it in my own life.  I don't see that that's what I'm experiencing.  ("For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12)

We should not be surprised when we experience an attack, especially after winning a spiritual victory or bearing much fruit. But we must remember that God is our helper and protector. And sometimes we're attacked just before God's going to use us in some important way.
 

Help in a Spiritual Attack

Our family can always expect attack when my husband is scheduled to preach. This week is no exception. (It's a reminder to me to pray for the families of our elders, who preach every week! My husband, not a full-time preacher, is filling in for Mr. T., whose son is getting married on Saturday.) I have also noticed that we can expect to be attacked in the very area about which my husband is preaching! Guess what subject he is preaching on?  Love. Yes, he is scheduled to preach on 1 Corinthians 13:  "the love chapter" of the Bible. The form that the attack has taken in my life is in discouragement, making me feel unloved by those closest to me, and feeling a failure in loving them. But, praise be to God, I have found great help in two ways:

• First, by going off to my bedroom (my "prayer closet"), shutting the door behind me, getting down on my knees next to my bed, and crying out to the Lord. This is a very important counter-attack. 

"What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear,

what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations, is there trouble anywhere?

We must never be discouraged, Take it to the Lord in prayer."  

• Second, during a spiritual attack, I've found it is crucial to bathe myself in the Word of God.

It's very encouraging. Here are some passages that have helped me lately:

"As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud; and he shall hear my voice. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me..."

Psalm 55:16-18

"Trust in him at all times; ye people,

pour out your heart before Him;

God is a refuge for us. Selah."

Psalm 62:8
 

"Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.

Lord, hear my voice:

let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait,
and in His Word do I hope." 

Psalm 130:1-2, 5

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,
from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord,
which made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved:

he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is thy keeper:
the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

The sun shall not smite thee by day,
nor the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil:
he shall preserve thy soul.

The Lord shall preserve thy going out
and thy coming in from this time forth,
and even forevermore."

Psalm 121