Have you ever followed God, thinking that you would walk directly into the good things He has promised for you, and instead you end up in spiritual battles? Have you found yourself in a place of crying out to God, wondering why He led you here, or wondering if you heard Him right at all?
I too have been in that place.
There was one situation where I had followed God. I had prayed, followed His direction, gotten confirmation. I was sure that this is the way that I was supposed to go. And then, I ended up in a place of being persecuted, picked on, even bullied.
And I kept thinking, God, why is this happening? Aren’t your promises supposed to come true? Why am I going through this?
I kept asking Him that and I kept saying, what is going on?
Spiritual Battles Will Come
Sometimes when we follow Jesus, it’s not going to be all pretty. It’s not going to be all perfect. There are going to be some spiritual battles before us. There are going to be people who persecute us.
When we go through these things, I would say, first of all, get some people around you to pray, people that are trustworthy, that will commit to pray you through this.
Remember This During Spiritual Battles
When we go through these things. And it seems that we found ourselves in the midst of these spiritual battles, remember that God is with you.
He’s walking with you.
He won’t leave you here.
God has not abandoned you.
He has not forgotten you.
He has not forsaken you.
Hebrews 13:5 in the NKJV says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
And that is His promise to you.
You Will Come Out on the Other Side of This Spiritual Battle
So whatever you are going through, there’s another side to these circumstances, and God will carry you through, if you do not quit.
Dear sister, I don’t pretend to understand or know why we go through the things we do. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that there is one who does have every answer.
He will carry you through. He will shape you. He will minister to you, and He will take you into the promises He has for you.
His promises will come to pass.
The most important thing to remember, is to not give up on God. That is exactly what the enemy wants you to do.
Some things we can do During Spiritual Battles
The first thing to do is to stay in God’s word. When we come into a place of questioning, when we come into a place of discouragement or depression, there can come on us a heaviness, and it is hard to go on with reading the word, but I would implore you to stay in the word of God, to keep up with a routine of being in the word of God every day.
It will help you.
One thing I do every morning is I read the word and then I’ll journal about what I read. This helps me to get my thoughts and feelings out, especially if I’m going through some circumstances that just aren’t pretty.
I will read the word of God and then I will journal. I will journal about what the word has spoken to me about what I’m going through. I will journal my feelings. I will cry out to God. I will pray in my journal. I will let the feelings and the questions out and that’s okay to do.
I mean, David did it in the Psalms all the time.
Memorize the Word
Another thing to do is to memorize the Word.
When we memorize the word, we are meditating on the word. And as we review the verses that we’ve memorized, we’re getting that word deep into our heart and we are retaining it within us.
When we have a memorized the word. The Holy Spirit can bring that word up within us at just the right time, and it will help us. It will guide us.
Psalm 119:105 says your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
When we memorize His Word, it will be that lamp to our feet and that light to our path. When we memorize God’s word, that truth will come up within us and it will not let the darkness overtake us.
Keep His Promises in Front of You During Spiritual Battles
Another thing that will help us to not quit is to keep God’s promises in front of our eyes and in our ears.
Keep your eyes on the word. Stay in God’s word, read God’s word. Let it minister to you. Memorize God’s word. Take those thoughts captive by using the scriptures you’ve memorized.
Dear sister, when we get our eyes off of Jesus and what His word says and onto the battle before us, it can keep us from moving forward.
You can ask God, why is this happening?
But then, turn your attention back to God, to His promises and continue to follow Him.
Keep Moving Forward During Spiritual Battles
Continue to put one foot in front of the other, know that the Lord will carry you through this. He will not leave you alone. He has not abandoned you.
So dear sister, today, decide that you will not quit, but you will find comfort in the scriptures and ask God to minister to your heart, that you will begin to memorize those scriptures, take every thought captive, and you will pray the word back to God as it ministers to your heart.
Dear sister, these are the things that will help you to keep moving forward.
I’d like to leave you with this verse. It is Psalm 27:13 in the NKJV.
Can I pray for you today?
Father God, you know exactly what my dear sister is going through. This very moment, you know, the circumstances that are heavy on her heart, you know the questions she is asking, the confusion she feels, and maybe the frustration and anger that she’s dealing with.
Thank you, Father, for coming to my dear sister and ministering to her heart through Your word.
Give her the courage to keep moving forward, to keep finding comfort in Your word, to memorize Your word. Give her the courage to not quit and not give up and not give in to these thoughts that the enemy would try to bring to her mind.
Father, I pray that as she reads your Word, that you would minister to heart, that you would show her the scriptures she should memorize, that your presence would be with her as she goes to your Word.
I pray father, that as she spends that time in worship and in the Word and in prayer that your presence would just permeate the atmosphere around her, that you would give her hope.
Father, thank you for ministering to my dear sister’s heart. Show her father, that your promises to her will come to pass, that Your promises to her are true, and that there is another side to what she is going through. In Jesus’ mighty name, amen.
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© Carolyn Rice 2022
