My War

God arms me with strength,
and he makes my way perfect. He makes me as surefooted as a deer,
enabling me to stand on mountain heights. He trains my hands for battle;
he strengthens my arm to draw a bronze bow. You have given me your shield of victory.
Your right hand supports me;
your help has made me great. (Psalm 18:32-35 NLT)

I would be a fool and a liar to deny that the last six months of my life haven't been easy ones. They just haven't. We've known greater joy, victories, and hurdles than we've ever known all along the way, but that doesn't mean it has been easy.

By the far majority (being really honest here) I've felt worse than I've ever felt in a pregnancy (possibly the fact that I'm older, possibly the fact that I'm also taking care of four children). Truthfully, I've always enjoyed pregnancy- but this one has been difficult. Our family has swayed with the expected challenges that are always prevalent in adopting an older child. This process of undoing a lack of love, affection, training and even mistreatment is taxing to say the least. I do not say these things to whine or discourage anyone from adopting older children, but it would be frivolous and unwise to believe that unraveling years of this type treatment would be a simple or speedy task. Of course, if you're called to do it than you can walk through it with victory. And you will certainly reap greater joy and triumph and witness miracles you would have never known otherwise. Hard, yes. Worth it, OH YES.

Sometimes in the midst of day in day out tasks, in the middle of getting the job done while maybe not feeling so great, we wake up one day and realize we might have hit the snooze on the most important task on our to do list. We can wake up and recognize how much of life we've been attempting to battle in our own strength, and suddenly our exhaustion and overwhelmed attitude makes perfect sense. It's almost as if we can suddenly open up our eyes to the reality that we have been making war on daily trials, fears and even physical challenges in ourselves, and always coming up short. In ourselves, we're angry when behaviors that we see in our children aren't changing as quickly as we'd like them to. In ourselves we are worn out with all that needs to get done, but seemingly is never finished. In ourselves we are tired of working hard to pay off debt when our best efforts are always met with cavities, automobiles in the shop, and broken air conditioners. In ourselves...there's just no way.

But since we as believers in Christ are constantly called to things that are totally beyond ourselves, we could never expect to see about deliverance, accomplishment and freedom in these same callings in our own strength either. It. Will. Never. Happen.

We can attempt to convince ourselves otherwise, but passive, laid back, and self dependent religion never produced godly fruit (or children for that matter) and it never will. One can follow hundreds of families and one can search throughout scripture and the same conclusions will be met over and over again. Victory is found when families and individuals are deliberate about where they run for help, who they rely on for deliverance, and the way they make war on life's storms.
This deliberateness bleeds through to everything they do. This deliberateness is life to them. It's obvious they have a supernatural strength and a profound peace in the middle of turmoil. It is light to a dark world. They might temporarily crumble under the weight of a circumstance, but they quickly, through wisdom and experience, cast the burden on the only One who can truly conquer it. The only One who can defeat the enemy in battle.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, (2 Corinthians 10:4 NKJV)

I refuse to sit passively by, roll over and accept defeat, exclaiming, "The job is too big. I just can't do it. I'm tired of fighting. I give up." I refuse to succumb to self dependence and in turn, defeat, in a life that I'm called to that's far bigger than my strength could ever handle. I want to see big things in my lifetime. Big revival spurning, miraculous JESUS things that I'll never witness standing in myself.

There are only two ways to live life. I can allow circumstances and even big callings overwhelm me as I attempt to roll with the punches and hope for the best outcome. I can get to the point of accepting less than God's best, which is undoubtedly an abundant life of joy and victory regardless of circumstance, because in myself it just feels unattainable.

Or I can take a good look at what Jesus has called me to do and what areas in my life I need a serious work of the Lord in, and I can declare war in those areas. I can fight family issues, physical ailments, financial trials and every thing that I could face in life, through standing on the Word of God, (my weapon) and crying out in prayer.
This IS the place where strongholds are broken and relief is found. It is a supernatural emptying of myself into the hands of a great big God who has only been waiting for me to come to Him all along.

Beware! Satan's number one attempt is to discourage a believer from declaring battle on their situations. It's especially prevalent when we as followers of Jesus have been attempting life in ourselves for a while. He comes at us with all sorts of lies and discouragement. "Nothing is going to change. Even if you try something new. This is life, and there's nothing you can do about it."

Those are never the words of the Savior. Don't buy the lies. Since the beginning of creation, Satan's priorities have been to kill, steal and destroy, and that's not going to change as long as life is going on as we know it. The kingdom of darkness is threatened when godly people are deliberate about their faith. The enemy has witnessed what one man can do who simply decides to trust God, doing prayerful battle with every trial, and he will try to discourage it at any cost. Undoubtedly, that's the realm where the world is impacted by one man's radical faith.

Each new day brings new trials and new battles. Am I armed and ready to make war for my family, for my friends, and for the life of abundance Jesus died to give me? Or am I going to sit around and mope about the way I feel, how people treat me, and my difficult circumstances all while I watch things get worse and my joy go down the drain? No thank you. I WILL stand on God's word! Jesus WILL have the victory! In HIM, the battle is won!