This week there is a gospel meeting going on at the St. James Church of Christ ... and I haven't made it to a night of it. Booooooo. Thanks to the sinus? allergies? crud? that I have, I have spent my days blowing my nose and coughing up my lungs (seriously, I think I deserve some serious ab muscles with all the coughing I've been doing!). And, with the fact that we are giving the MAP test week, missing school definitely has NOT been an option. So, with lots of help from cold/sinus medicine I have pushed through the school days (and tried not to cough all over my kiddos who are working so hard on their tests! bless their hearts!) ... and then I've been rushing home and falling onto my couch and not moving. Seriously. 2 nights in a row. I slept and laid on the couch til it was time to get up and go to bed.
Pathetic. Booo.
But, what do ya do. Sometimes you have to give in to be able to keep going I guess.
BUT, feeling awful + stress at school this time of year + missing some of the gospel meeting (which I am excited to go to tonight by the way!) + the sermon Sunday morning got me thinking about this:
This is one of Satan's test. This week, when I am tired, exhausted, crabby, stressed .... this is a battle I have to fight with Satan. Not that it is bad for me to be sick (well, I mean, it
is bad, but it isn't giving in to Satan bad...), but that when I feel this tired, exhausted, and crabby, the door is wide open for Satan to walk in. It'd be oh so easy to snap at my husband, to be grumpy with my kids, to not be a good example to those I meet each day, to justify not going to church tonight either, to, well, let Satan win. 'Cause I don't feel great.
This is a battle - part of my personal war - with Satan. And I have to come ready to fight.
An army who doesn't train for war, but just jumps into battle hoping to figure it out is doomed to lose. Common sense, right?
Somehow, not as common as it should be.
If an army didn't train, but instead decided they would figure things out as they went in battle and "learn as they went", they would not stand a chance. We can all see that - that's why our army has boot camp and training and makes sure our troops are very prepared before they ever think about sending them to battle. If we can see that ... why can't we see that we need to be prepared BEFORE we go into battle with Satan?
The down times, the good times, the peaceful times -- that's when a good army is made. That's when a good army is training, learning, practicing, making sure they are ready when the next battle comes. The down times, the good times, the peaceful times -- that's when a good Christian is made. That's when a good Christian is training, learning, practicing,
praying, making sure they are ready when the next battle comes.
Satan has been around a long time. A lot longer than I have. So, it's pretty safe to figure he knows some good tricks. He has been practicing a long time. And each time I defeat him, he goes back to the drawing board and picks out a new trick - one designed to stump me, personally. His efforts go stronger. And, so, the only way for me to continue defeating him is for me to keep growing stronger. Why do you think our army has to keep getting new armor? new weapons? new machinery? Because as we learn, so do our enemies. And to keep defeating our enemies, we have to keep growing stronger as they do. It's the same with Christian's and Satan. If we consider the "peaceful time" our down time and do nothing to grow stronger ... if we decide to wait to train til we are already in battle ... we are doomed. We have a powerful foe. When he shows up to battle, it is to late for us to start training. We need to already be in good shape at that point.
We DO learn from each battle with Satan. And then, we need to take what we learned and start applying it - practicing it - praying about it - so we can be even more ready for our next battle. If we wait to start drawing close to God til we are already in the heat of a battle with Satan ... well, the battle is Satan's before it has even begun. After all "on the job training" only works with some jobs ... and battling with Satan just isn't one of them. =)
