Sometimes I feel overwhelmed and fearful when I focus on all of the evil that is occurring in the world. At times it can feel defeating. Perhaps you don't realize this, but there is a spiritual battle occurring all around us. Even though most people can't see it, the forces of good and evil are engaging in spiritual warfare. Angels are battling demons. However, we do not need to fear or feel overwhelmed. We can take comfort in the fact that Jesus has defeated evil through his death and resurrection. In Matthew 28:18, Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." This means that Jesus has power and authority over the devil and his evil schemes. But the devil still wants to wreak havoc in our lives and destroy us. 1 Peter 5:8 relays this message clearly, "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." Ephesians 6:12 also addresses this battle, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm."
So how can we withstand the devil and his evil demons that want to destroy us? We find the answer in scripture. First, we are instructed to not become immersed in the things of this world (such as money, material items, lust, sex, etc.) but to instead seek God and His will.
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
- 1 John 2:15-17
Then we are instructed to resist the devil, have faith in God, and receive strength from Him.
Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To Him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
- 1 Peter 5:9-11
We have power through God and our faith in him. We can wage our own battle against evil through this power.
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
- 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
So what are these weapons mentioned in the above verse? One of my favorite passages of scripture describes the weapons that we can use to combat evil. See the information below that I clipped from my prayer journal to gain a better understanding of these weapons.
I'm going to end this post by recommending that you listen to the song in the video below. It is an amazing, powerful song that speaks to our power over the devil's schemes in our lives. I hope that this song becomes an inspiration to you like it has become for me.
In complete transparency I have been avoiding writing this post. I have been feeling pressured to deliver something amazing; something better than the previous post and the post before that. And so I have been dragging my feet and avoiding writing this post.
Here's another confession: I am a total perfectionist. Anyone who knows me at all is aware of this. I desire to be perfect in all that I do. I struggle to let things go because of my ongoing desire for perfection. I spend hours upon hours working to create end products that are completely perfect. One example of this involves black raspberries. We live on a small farm that has some overgrown fence rows that contain many, many wild raspberry bushes. I didn't realize how many raspberries there were until I become intent upon picking them. I decided that it was my job to pick all of the black raspberries so they would not go to waste. I picked raspberries for hours in 88 degree weather while wearing long pants and long sleeves to deter ticks and injury from thorns. I was determined as I entered unchartered raspberry patches while enduring thorns that ripped through my clothes and into the tender skin on my arms, hands, and legs. I became overwhelmed by the sheer number of raspberries. I was a woman possessed. I was scraped, poked, scratched, and bleeding. I looked like small animals had mauled me during me sleep. After three and a half hours of picking, I finally realized that it was not feasible or healthy for me to pick every raspberry. I was only able to pick about one third of the raspberries. I decided to let the rest go, which was incredibly difficult for me as a perfectionist.
Before you continue on in this post, do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to listen to and reflect upon the song below. It is such a powerful song that will help to set the tone for the rest of this post.
I don't know about you, but my desire for perfection is an ongoing battle that I struggle with daily that sometimes interrupts my ability to find peace within myself and my life. When I reflect upon this song and what it means to me, I realize that no matter how hard I try, I will never actually achieve perfection. I am human and will therefore never be perfect. I also realize that I don't have to be perfect. According to scripture, we don't have to be perfect because Jesus is perfect and He sacrificed His life to make us holy and perfect in the eyes of God. Please pause and take some time read about Jesus' death in John 19 and His resurrection in John 20. According to Hebrews 10: 14 - 18, we are made perfect through Jesus' sacrifice:
Because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First He says:
"This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds."
Then He adds:
"Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more."
And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.
- Hebrews 10:14-18
So how do we receive this gift of perfection through Jesus' sacrifice? Let's look again to scripture:
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
- John 3:16
That if you confess with you mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in you heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
- Romans 10:9,10
You have to first believe in Jesus and His sacrificial death and resurrection. After that, you need to confess out loud to God that you are sinful and that you believe that you are saved through Jesus's sacrifice. You should then seek to become closer to God through regular prayer and bible reading. Ask God to help you to accomplish His purpose for you within your life. Seek Him often and with passion.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make your paths straight.
- Proverbs 3:5,6
But what does all of this mean in our ongoing struggle with perfection? As I mentioned above, we don't have to be perfect because Jesus makes us perfect through His sacrifice. The other thing that you need to know is that while God expects you to do work for Him and His kingdom while seeking His purpose for you, you will never achieve salvation or perfection through those good works; only through your acceptance of Jesus. So your good works or actions do not have to be perfect. If your actions align with God's will for your life, then He will use them for His greater purpose to draw you and others closer to Him.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.
- Romans 8:28
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
- Ephesians 2:10
So the next time you are feeling overwhelmed with the pressure to be perfect, take a deep breath and just let it go. Ask God to take that burden from you. You don't have to be perfect. God created you to be unique and wonderful. He loves you for who you are. He will meet you where you are in all of your flaws and imperfection. And if you seek Him, He will use you and the work that you do for Him to further His kingdom.
I listen to K-LOVE on a regular basis. I find it to be very encouraging and inspirational. The music really speaks to me. Just over a year ago, I signed up to receive the K-LOVE verse of the day. Shortly after, I started receiving daily notifications for my verse of the day, right on my cell phone. I received the same verse of the day. The same verse. Every. Day. I initially thought it was strange, but most likely just some kind of glitch. I performed a quick search on the K-LOVE website, their Facebook page, and even Google to see if anyone else reported the same issue. I found nothing. I proceeded on with my life, not thinking much more about it. A few months later, I decided to troubleshoot the issue again. I removed myself from receiving the verse of the day. I then signed up again to receive it. I still got that same verse on my phone every day. Hmmm. I have provided my verse of the day in the image below.
After several more months of receiving that exact same verse every day, I began to think that perhaps God was trying to tell me something. (Sometimes I'm a little slow.) God works in some very mysterious ways. Maybe He was telling me that this verse was specifically intended for me to read and reflect upon every day. Hmmmm. Maybe it's one of my life verses. I thought about that. I really considered what the Lord was trying to tell me.
Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before Him, singing with joy. - Psalm 100: 2
Worship Him with gladness. Come before him while singing with joy. Every. Day. Every single day. I got the picture. The Lord was telling me that I need to continuously worship Him, seek Him, and sing to him. Distracted with a doctorate program and a challenging full-time job, sadly I had not been doing that. What does it mean to continuously worship and seek the Lord? I believe that it may look different for each of God's children. For me, I have a sense that it means that I will have a constant open dialogue with God, like an ongoing conversation. I am to come to God daily, pray, worship through words and song, express my thanks for all that He has given me, discuss my fears and concerns, and ask for His divine assistance to help me to be the servant that he wants me to be.
It is clear as I stated above that the Lord wants us to constantly worship Him and seek Him. But what does it really mean to worship? According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, the term worship is both a verb and a noun. As a verb, worship means:
"to honor or show reverence for as a divine being or supernatural power"
"to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion"
The term worship as a noun means:
"reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power"
"a form of religious practice with its creed and ritual"
"extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem"
Worship is a verb, which indicates that we as God's children can perform or carry out worship as an action to exalt Him and draw nearer to Him. As a noun, worship can be considered a thing, such as our offering to God to express our faith in Him and praise for His awesomeness. Did you notice that third definition of worship as a noun? It indicates that we can also worship objects. Oh my! Our God is a jealous God. We are to reserve our worship for Him alone!
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and and keep my commandments.
- Exodus 20: 4 - 6
We are to worship nobody and nothing besides the Lord God Our Heavenly Father and Creator. I know what you're thinking. When would you ever create an idol and then worship it? But what you may not understand is that we have those idols in our lives already in the form of money, clothing, shoes, cars, make-up, etc. When we put those things above God, it is like we are worshiping those things instead of him. If you put a famous athlete or movie star above the Lord, you are worshipping that person instead of God. He deserves our continuous worship as our All-Powerful, Loving Creator. We need that worship to strengthen our relationship with Him. We were created to worship Him.
It seems appropriate to close this post with one of my favorite worship songs ever. I hope that you enjoy it and find that it brings you into a more meaningful place as you worship the Lord.
I've been in the desert: a spiritual desert. For four years I have been lacking spiritual growth and fulfilment. In the midst of one of the most difficult times in my life, I did not seek God as I should have and I suffered the consequences of my actions. I am still suffering. I was so busy with my life; all of those tasks. I felt that I had to do what I needed to do for my job, my research, and my dissertation. I put God up on this shelf that I rarely visited while I reached a level of function and performance that was honestly amazing. I was like a well-oiled machine. When my research was finished and my dissertation was finally completed, I found myself wandering in the desert and I was so very thirsty. And God was still on that shelf.
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God? - Psalm 42: 1, 2
Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." - John 7: 37, 38
Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." - John 4: 13, 14
So I began to search for that Living Water to start to quench my thirst. I prayed. I prayed some more. What did the Lord want me to do? I felt awkward. What was I going to do with myself now that my workload decreased to one fourth of what it had been? I found self care again. I began to run regularly. I prayed again. And again after that. I began knitting a sweater. (I still remembered how to knit!) I watched the movie God's Not Dead. I had seen it before and really enjoyed it. However, I was again really impressed yet also very humbled by that movie. Josh, the protagonist in the movie, displayed the kind of faith and courage that I hope to possess one day. He fought for God against great adversity. He made sacrifices within his own life to stand up for God when it seemed that nobody supported him and the easier option would be to deny God. I breathed it in and reflected upon my own geography just on the edge of the desert.
I started reading books that did not relate to research methodology or APA formatting. I found the book All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir by Beth Moore. I struggled to really gain interest initially. However, after some consideration, I decided to continue to push through. And then it really clicked for me. I finished the book at a rather slow pace for me, trying to soak in every bit of it. It was a truly amazing, inspirational book. I laughed out loud many times. I cried repeatedly. It was so raw, yet also very polished and thoughtful. Beth Moore laid everything out there, which I appreciated so much. As I learned about Beth's life experiences and how she sought the face of God in everything that she did, I found myself reflecting upon my own life and how I want to seek God. I was inching slightly further toward the edge of the desert.
I dug into the bible. I prayed more. I came to the understanding that the Lord wanted me to come to him. I am His daughter. He missed me and has been looking forward to my return. The Lord also knows me better than I know myself. He knows that I need something to do; a special project to keep me on track. Something to fill all of that time that I devoted to the doctorate program that is now just awkward emptiness. And so this blog was born again out of my necessity for purpose while I begin to seek the face of God again. It is my accountability partner. Through this blog I will continue to find spiritual growth and nearness to my Heavenly Father. I will drink deeply from the Living Water to quench my great thirst for Jesus. My hope is that others may find some inspiration in this journey and quench their thirst as well.
