Winning The Cruel Game

"Jesus turned around and, seeing her, He said, Take courage, daughter! Your faith has made you well. And at once the woman was restored to health." Matthew 9: 22


     Have you ever felt like your world was just falling apart?  I guarantee you that I have felt like that, and I have a strong suspicion that you have too.  It's easy to get dragged down into the lowest lows when we feel like that.  If you're like me, you tend to take your eyes off of God and put them right back on yourself.  I don't know what we find so interesting about ourselves that we can't take our eyes off of ourselves, but that is what happens, isn't it?  We quit listening to God, and the quiet inner voice of the Holy Spirit, and instead we start to listen to Satan's lies.  He's good.  Really good.  He takes something that we know to be true, he starts out telling us the truth, but then very very subtly he changes it a little and if we don't catch it quickly enough he changes it a little more until suddenly we are listening to outright lies.   We may realize it, but by that time we are so sucked in that we can't stop listening and we find ourselves tricked into thinking it "must be true".   His hope is that we will just accept that and then it will become our reality. 


       If we look at our lives when we are not at "rock bottom" we can usually see at least one way (and often more) that God has worked in our lives.  It is usually something that you know just HAD to be a God thing because there is just no way that was happening without Gods' help.   God puts these examples of how He works in our lives out there so that we can turn to them to remind us that He IS working in our lives.  And that He IS "all powerful".    When we are going through the rough  times, hopefully before we have been taken in by Satan's lies, we need to reach out and grab onto the vivid reminders of how God has already worked the impossible in our lives.   


        God isn't gonna keep Satan from coming after you.  Satan came after Jesus.  What did Jesus do?  He turned to the Word of God.  He quoted it back to Satan and ordered him to be gone.  We have been given the power and authority to do the very same thing.  We have been given the Word of God.  We need to study it now and know it.  One so that we can use it to defeat Satan, but also because if we REALLY KNOW IT we can not be fooled when Satan tries to twist it into something that it is not.  And we need to be able to recognize how God works in our lives.  Remember the things He has done.  Remember how awesome it was to see how He worked in your life.  And realize that He has not left you behind.  


        Now when it seems like the world is falling apart around me I try to really think on God's Word, and on the miracles that He has worked in my life.  I know that He would not have invested that much in me just to let me go...  I then start to evaluate my life to see if there are any strongholds that I have not given up to Him.   I am quite sure that there are always some strongholds at any one time... as I am only human.  But I ask God to show me if there is anything that He want's me to work on.  And I pray.  I don't pray that God fixes it, but I guess it wouldn't hurt... I do however pray that God be my center.  That I can keep my eyes and my thoughts on Him as I go this trial rather than on myself...  not an easy task.  And I am not always very good at it.  You probably know exactly what I'm saying, huh?  


          Dear Lord,  please don't let my friends and I be fooled by Satan's cruel games.  Please help us to keep our eyes and our minds focused on you as we go through our trials.  Please bring to mind scriptures that will help us to fight the urge to give in... and please help us to give our problems to You and to really give them to You and to be able to rest in Your peace as we allow You to take the driver's seat in our lives and steer us back to where we need to be.