Fist Pump

One of my favorite visuals comes from back when I was still in New England and just a baby in Christ.  Each Sunday morning before church service would begin, I was privileged to sit in a circle with some of the most supportive women. We would all discuss our struggles, hurt for one another, and pray for one another.  One day we spoke of how satan would just love to see us fall, to see me give up on my marriage, to see so and so stop praying for her sons salvation, to see us all stop praying for healing for another sweet lady in the group.  Then a friend told us all the story of how her old pastors wife would go through her house with a broom and get all of the corners of the rooms and yell to satan that he HAD to get out of her house, he had no place there.

Many people do not even like to talk about the devil.  Some don't believe in him. Some believe he has so much power, that if you go through your house with a broom, yelling and screaming at him like a wild person, all you will do is just get his horns all ruffled and your problems will become worse, not better.  All I know is,  his name has sure been coming up a lot lately.

I am blessed with two West Virginia buddies that wish to see marriages saved as much as I do.  One touched base this weekend, heartbroken over hearing another marriage broken up, this time by infidelity and wondering why the devil just wouldn't leave people alone, leave families alone.  But here is the deal folks....satan doesn't just swoop into these marriages ( insert your ordeal here in place of marriage), swirl everything around like the Tasmanian devil, and then run off laughing and rubbing his hands together.

He may find a way to sneak in without knocking at a time when our guard is down, but we are the ones who have to give him permission to STAY.  We are the ones who make the choices day by day, minute by minute to allow the things he wants to see happen to continue happening.  Many of us, myself included in many aspects of my life, just simply and honestly do not want that personable accountability. Or maybe we just don't have the self-discipline.  I can promise you from having been there that it is one thousand times easier to stay in a place where you are miserable than to work your tail off day by day to get out of that place.  But difficult as it may be, the end is so blessed and so worth all of the hard work!

As always, I love to go to gotquestions.org for some of the best reasoning on things.  I loved this quote on overcoming satan in your life:

 "As Christians, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit to help us overcome sin (1 John 4:4). We have everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). If we sin, we have no excuse. We cannot blame the devil. We cannot blame our circumstances. We can only blame ourselves. And, until we recognize that the problem resides within us (Romans 7:20), we will never arrive at the solution."

  

I am choosing to quote 1 John 4:4, not because I feel like playing Bible bingo today or taking anything out of context, but because this is what I need to see the most today:

1 John 4:4The Message (MSG)

⁴ My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. 

Having fought some major battles in my life, at this point, my battle is in doing the little things God calls me to do each and every day.  I hear Him, but then I turn away from that and follow my own plan, just as the devil swoops around my mind and I allow myself to be diverted from what I know I need to be doing.  What is it that God has called you to do?  What if, right here and now, we choose to absolutely believe that the Spirit that is in us is stronger than ANYTHING IN THE WORLD!!!!  Doesn't that include the devil?  I believe it does!  So here is what I am going to do...I am going to throw my fist up in the air and tell the devil to back OFF.  Don't think I won't run around my house like a crazy woman with a broom kicking satan out if I have to!  But the point is we all have to DO SOMETHING!  Start with believing the strength of the Spirit within you, then throw that fist in the air and tell the devil where to go!!!!