I know the Bible talks about our battle being against spiritual forces. It is so hard for me to comprehend. However, I often stop and wonder about things in my life and if they are truly caused by spiritual warfare.
This weekend Dan was gone. On Saturday I had several kids from our youth group over to do a work project in exchange for us supporting them on their mission's trip. Then I offered to have 2 of our teenage neighbor friends, who are involved in our youth group, come over for a slumber party. The work day was stressful. By mid-afternoon I was so tired and crabby I wanted to cancel the slumber party plans. My middle son was so difficult all weekend. It seemed like someone was standing behind him and pushing all the wrong buttons. He was taking it out on all of us and I was taking out my crabbiness on my kids. I didn't cancel the slumber party and the girls came over. They had fun but I was still crabby and wishing I was alone. Sunday morning was stressful but we all got out the door and made it to church 15 minutes late. During Sunday School one of these young ladies got a call on her cell phone and found out that one of her friends from high school had been killed late the night before at a party. He was shot in the chest. She told me that if she hadn't spent the night she would of been at that party. WOW! I thanked God that I didn't cancel and that she was safe at my house. So was all the stress and crabbiness a result of spiritual warfare? How does satan work in our lives?
Tonight at dinner my oldest stopped us as I was slamming the food down. He said, "I think we need to pray." He then proceeded to say a wonderful prayer and asked Jesus to help all of us be nice to each other. I had to apologize to my children several times this weekend. I was so out of line. At times like that I get even crabbier because I know I am setting a bad example. It was good to see my son pray and know that even though I fail at times I have succeed in setting a good example other times.
Unfortunately, even though we know the war is already won, the battle rages on. I think as Western Christians we don't often look at the whole picture, maybe it scares us or it is just not tangible, so we choose not to recognize it. My eyes have been opened considerably in the last 5+ years, I was naive and scared and didn't want to admit that the spiritual realm exists. The Bible is pretty clear that our battle is not against flesh and blood.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you had the sleepover...