Keep Going
Do you ever just get tired? Tired of standing, believing, fighting, and wondering if your promise or desire will ever materialize? You’ve stood until you feel like you can’t stand anymore. It would be so easy to just chuck it all. To give up and say screw it I’m done…
God knows I’ve been right there. The long seasons of fighting can wear you out. The constant contending and pushing forward feel overwhelming. I’m talking about the reality of how it feels. But is how it all feels actually the reality of what is happening? That is the really important question.
The enemy uses our feelings to sabotage our faith. Plain and simple. He can’t get at us any other way. If he can keep our feelings at high alert for long enough he hopes to get us to give up. BUT…does giving up get us what we want, what God has promised us or what our heart cries out for? No…giving up only takes you back to square one. We have come to far to go back…1 Peter 5:8-9 TLT says it this way. “Be careful—watch out for attacks from Satan, your great enemy. He prowls around like a hungry, roaring lion, looking for some victim to tear apart. Stand firm when he attacks. Trust the Lord; and remember that other Christians all around the world are going through these sufferings too.”
God has a destiny, a calling, and plan for each of us. It goes far beyond our personal happiness, or plans for retirement. It’s easy to forget when we got saved we enlisted in the Army of the Universe and our lives do not belong to us any longer. We are soldiers in the battle to end all battles. We fight for the King of Kings in a spiritual war that has been waging for thousands of years but is culminating very soon. We must keep our eyes on the war and not on our circumstances.
Distraction is “anything that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else.”Our enemy wants us to lose focus so that we are distracted from our goal of getting to our destiny and purpose. Lately my emotions have been frantic because of my circumstances. It happens. We all go off the reservation sometimes. Thank God for his grace is all I’m sayin…
But I’ve learned to get back on track quicker than I used to. So I’m on a reset. I’ve learned to get back on track I have to do some things:
1. REALIZE emotions are part of my make-up but they are not in charge. I am in charge. I can feel one way but still do what I know to do.
2. DECIDE to choose to stop letting my feelings tell me what is true. They scream loudly trying to push me in a direction but they are not my compass. True North is God’s word and I choose today to rely on that since it never changes.
3. KNOW that my enemy is a liar. He cannot speak the truth. Whatever he places in front of me to convince me God is not good and for me is a lie.
4. FIGHT I must fight. My enemy is relentless and I must be even more so. I will fight I will win. Period.
While climbing my way out of suicidal depression I heard this song by Katy Perry and these lyrics became my anthem, my confession of faith, my fuel to fight. God used these words to help me break free, gain my strength to fight and to win…
I won't just survive
Oh, you will see me thrive
Can't write my story
I'm beyond the archetype (typical)
I won't just conform
No matter how you shake my core
'Cause my roots, they run deep, oh
Oh, ye of so little faith
Don't doubt it, don't doubt it
Victory is in my veins
I know it, I know it
And I will not negotiate
I'll fightit, I'll fightit
I will transform
When, when the fire's at my feet again
And the vultures all start circling
They're whispering, "you're out of time."
But still, I rise
This is no mistake, no accident
When you think the final nail is in; think again
Don't be surprised, I will still rise
That is so powerful! I used these words as dynamite under my tail…I played this song a hundred times and the more I sang it the more fierce I became against all that was coming against me! And I won…you can win…you only lose when you quit…don’t.ever.quit.fighting!