Don't Give Up When Satan Wins a Battle

You know when you work so hard for something (Whether its making good grades, avoiding an addiction, whatever your battle is) And then in one moment of weakness, all of the hard work is gone, down the drain.  One decision can bring you all the way to square one.  Sometimes meaning starting your countdown to recovery back at day one.

Sometimes we just aren't strong enough to win every battle.  The devil comes just at the time of our moment of weakness and the next thing you know, you are sitting in a hole, feeling shameful and guilty.

The devil just won a battle. Now you have two options. You can 1) sit around and wallow in your shame and self pity or 2) you can look up to your Heavenly Father and ask for forgiveness and thank Him for His countless mercies that are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:22-23 "The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.")

God knows we are not perfect.  He doesn't expect perfection from us.  Otherwise, He would not have sent His Son to die for us on Calvary. He DOES expect us to love Him and to try our hardest to do right by Him.  But He knows we are going to mess up and fail.  He knows it, and we should know it too.  He does not expect perfection from us, and we should not expect perfection from ourselves either.

Sometimes Satan wins the battle, but that does not mean we give up and let him win the war. Pick yourself back up and keep fighting the good fight.

Even if it may seem hopeless, remember the war has already been won.  Christ has already won this battle for us.  Satan cannot defeat you because you have Christ living in you, and He has already won the victory over sin and death for us!

So the next time Satan wins a battle in your fight, pick yourself back up, claim victory in Christ's name, and keep on fighting the good fight!

"Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." ~ 1 Timothy 6:12

Love always,

Tiffany 

(12.13.12)

Just on a personal note...

So I wrote this note on my phone during one of my melt downs last week during class. I am not going to change the wording of it because I don't want to mess with the raw emotions that were being experienced when written. Some of it was a little too personal so I left it out, but I left what I wanted shared:

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I'm sitting in class and I don't even know why.  I'm physically here, but mentally, I am far far away.  I feel like I'm relapsing... and I'm not doing a good job at fighting it. I just don't know what to think anymore.  I really just want to go to bed and never get out of it.

And on top of all this, or maybe the reason for all this, I'm not sure... is I miss him. And I hate it! Why can't I just hate him.  Why can't I just move on like everyone says I should.  Why can't I just move on like he apparently has (and with no problem at that). It's not fair...

I keep asking "but God?" or "God why?" but does it really matter?  Like the song "The Hurt and the Healer" by MercyMe says, "Healing doesn't come from being explained".

We can cry and beg God for an explanation all day, but would we understand it? Even if God answered every little question we had, we would still want to know more.  We would ask and ask all day long for more because there is no way for our small finite minds to comprehend God and His mysterious ways.  We may think we have Him figured out, but we really have no clue.

I ask God everyday why things didn't work out between us.  Why did I screw up? Why did you let me fall in love with someone if I was only going to end up broken, hurt and confused in the end? Why did I feel like you wanted me with him forever? Why did you allow me to get hurt like this? Why did you allow that last response when it came in when it did? Why did you let me feel that feeling of reassurance when it obviously was not true?

I do not know all these answers, and I may never know the whole story.  But one thing I do know is God has all the answers.  All I can do is cry to God for comfort, not answers.  I have to trust that He knows what He is doing.  I have to live for Him, and never let the pain from my loss overbear the love He has given me through all this, because often time I do.

Faithfully Waiting for God's Promises

If you are struggling with problems in your faith, I suggest you read the story of Abraham. His story is told throughout Genesis (starting Gen 12). I will give you the gist of his story…

God promised Abram (later renamed Abraham by God) that he would be the father of many nations if he obeyed his commands. The first one was to leave his country and family and travel to a new place and continue following Him. So Abram did just that. God also promised him descendants that would be more numerous than the stars (Gen 15:5)

Abraham trusted God, but began to grow weary, for he was getting old and had no children. He tried taking the matters into his own hands, adopting a slave, having a child with his wife’s servant girl so he could have a son, but God told him He was still going to have the promised child even in his old age. And at the age of 90, Sarah gave birth to the promised child, Isaac.

The whole point I’m trying to make is that if God has promised you something, don’t be discouraged.  It may seem like it is taking too long, and time has run out, but remember, He goes by HIS time, not ours.  What may seem like too late to us, may be just on time with Him. Do not lose faith and take matters into your own hands, as Abraham did. Trust that God will provide, no matter how hard it may be hold on.

I hope this helps renew someone’s faith like it has mine.

God bless,

Tiff <3

Running

So I had a lot of things on my mind this evening, so to just get my thoughts together, and to take out my frustrations, I went for a walk. Normally my walks consist of… well… walking. But tonight I ran. And kept running. Normally, if I decide to jog, I’d be lucky if I got past two houses before taking a break. But tonight, I ran for almost 8 minutes straight, with no breaks.

But then I looked back, and saw just how far I had been running, and I realized, wow, there is no way I did that, and suddenly I was overwhelmed with fatigue. My body, which had been full of energy, just totally drained. Why? Because I looked back.

Why am I telling you this? Because as I continued to walk, I realized, that life works the same way. 

God has a great plan for us, each and every one of us (Jer 29:11). But sometimes we don’t seek out that plan, or we run from it. In doing so we are really doing ourselves a disservice.

Think back to one of the most popular Bible stories that I know you know if you attended any kind of Sunday School growing up.  Think back to the story of Jonah. Most people remember him as the guy who got swallowed by the whale/fish. But as I was reading it to the kids in the Nursery last week, I saw the story from a whole new perspective, having matured several years from the last time I heard the story.

He ran from God’s calling for Him. When we run from our God’s calling in our lives, we are not the only ones who are affected (the other passengers on the boat Jonah was on was also affected by the bad storm God sent them, all because of Jonah running from God). 

So instead of running away from our problems/fears/troubles, we should run TO our Savior.  Tonight, as I was running, I just kept running. And kept running. Focusing on the goal to clear my mind.  It wasn’t until I looked back that I realized how far I’ve come and decided I did enough.

When we run to God, we cannot look back. The past is the past. We cannot hang on to it forever, because God has something bigger, greater, and better for us.  When running toward God, don’t look back, keep your focus on what’s ahead, and I can guarantee you, God will give you the strength to keep pushing through, even when you think there is no way you can do it, He can and will make a way. Remember “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)” As long as God is on your side, He will get you through anything. 

So keep focusing on your run to Him, because your future with Him, is brighter than anything you can see behind you…