God loves YOU.

Jesus loves me! This I know,

1. For the Bible tells me so;
   Little ones to Him belong;
   They are weak, but He is strong.
   
   
   Yes, Jesus loves me!
   Yes, Jesus loves me!
   Yes, Jesus loves me!
   The Bible tells me so.
   
   
   If you're anything like me, you grew up singing that song. And over the years, as you've grown up, you've memorized countless scriptures on the love God has for you. 
   
   
   So over time you've come to know for a fact that God loves you; it's written all throughout Scripture, but do you believe it?
   
   
   I find myself loving God easily and believing His love for me when things are going smoothly, when everything in life just seems to be going good. 
   
   
   But when life knocks me down and I'm lost and confused at a dead end in my life, it's just a little harder for me to sing that song and believe that God loves me.
   
   
   I'm just being honest with you guys, and hopefully you can relate.
   
   
   So today I chose to go through some of the people in the Bible who I think must have been confused, lost, and at a dead end in their life, and I wanted to see how they handled things.
   
   
   I started with Hannah. For YEARS, Hannah was taunted and teased for being unable to conceive a child. She was teased to such an extent that it burdened her so badly that she would be unable to eat and do nothing but cry. 
   
   
   I then remembered Abraham. He was promised that he would be the father of nations, but his wife could not bear children for him. They took matters into their owns hands and their servant, Hagar, had Ishmael, yet God still blessed Sarah and Abraham with their own son later down the road. Isaac was born, exactly as God had promised. However, after some time later, God asked Abraham to take Isaac, the son he was blessed with and dearly loved, to the land of Moriah and SACRIFICE him.
   
   
   Lastly, I went to Job. Job lost EVERYTHING. And after he was faced with the tremendous grief of losing ALL of his animals, servants, and children, he was then struck with a disease that covered his entire body with boils. 
   
   
   We know the ending of each of their stories, and we see how God came through for them. It's comforting because we see so how God cares for His people and how He has things in His control.
   
   
   The thing about it though, just because we now know the ending of their stories, they did not. Hannah did not know that God would answer her prayers and give her a son. Abraham did not know that God would stop him right before he killed his own son as a sacrifice. And Job did not know that God would bless him with twice as much as he had before. 
   
   
   That's where we need to learn a lesson. 
   
   
   They had no idea the outcomes of their stories while they were in the midst of their trials in life (just as we have no idea what ours are) yet they remained faithful to The Lord and they trusted and believed that God loved them through it all. 
   
   
   God loved Hannah. God loved Abraham. God loved Job. And God loves YOU. 
   
   
   When you're facing a trial in your life, remain confident in The Lord even when life gives you every reason to doubt Him. God will come through just as He did for Hannah, Abraham, and Job, and one day you'll be able to share your story of The Lord's faithfulness for others too.  
   
   
   
   

A Battle For Your Heart

I recently read the book called Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, and let me tell you... if you haven't read it, go get it now and start reading. I finished the book a couple of weeks ago, and I am actually planning on rereading it when I finish the busyness of this semester; it's that good.

However, for those of you who haven't read it yet, I want to share a little bit of what I learned, and I also want to share a little passage from the book with you guys:

"If Jesus said the thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, well, then, why don't we think the thief ever actually comes to steal and kill and destroy? Good grief—the things people just roll over and accept as "God's will." The house was just the move to steal; the Enemy wanted to kill our hearts and destroy our faith and all that flows from it. I think that's nearly always true. The particular attack is not the issue; he'll steal anything to kill and destroy. 

During an assault like that you must remember: make no agreements. The Enemy will suggest all sorts of things. You see—God doesn't care. You're not worth fighting for. Your heart doesn't matter. You can't trust Him. He is trying to kill your heart, destroy the glory of your life. It will feel hard—really hard, almost impossible—but whatever you do, make no agreements. You have to start there."

-Waking the Dead, 156

That first line gets me every time. 

Jesus clearly told us in John 10 that the enemy's sole purpose is to attack us, steal from us, and ultimately destroy us. How naive we are to completely ignore what He clearly warned us of and act as if we are above (or maybe even below) the line of the enemy's attacks. 

Okay, so maybe you're getting the picture now, like I did. The enemy desperately wants to attack my life, specifically my heart.... but why???

Why? Because YOU are an image bearer of The Lord (Genesis 1:27). Of course the enemy wants to attack you, he hates that we bear the image of Christ. The enemy wants to do anything and everything to harm and ruin the lives of those who bear the image of God, to steal and kill and destroy them. 

Your life isn't going to and never will make sense until you come to terms with the fact that "the story of your life is the story of the long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears it" (Waking the Dead, 149). 

Did you just read that??? The enemy KNOWS what you could be and he FEARS it. 

Satan along with the other fallen angels only have a short time here on earth to attack us, to steal from us, and to destroy us, and they are angry (Revelation 12:12). So why is it that we still live our lives in ignorance of these attacks in our lives—on our hearts. 

Wake up, people. 

I say that because that's what I have to tell myself every day.

"Wake up, Erin. Acknowledge these attacks on your life, and fight." 

The enemy of our soul is going to take every victory in our lives that he can get, no matter how small. Those thoughts of weakness, ugliness, or pride? Those aren't from your Father, so where do you think you got them? 

We just accept those little lies in our heads like they're nothing, and that scares me. It scares me because I've been there. I've accepted lie after lie after lie. I've been a slave to my own thoughts, captive to the thoughts that the enemy so desperately wanted me to keep. 

Another line in Waking the Dead that was a big eye opener for me says this, "Any movement toward God or others, will be opposed. Marriage, friendship, beauty, rest—the thief wants it all" (154).

Why do we let the enemy keep us pinned down then? Why do we just stop when we face opposition in our lives? Why don't we wake up and acknowledge the war that we are in the midst of? 

Go read Ephesians 6. 

This is not a war between flesh-and-blood enemies; we are at a war against the strategies of the devil, and it's time to put on the full armor of God and live our lives accordingly. 

Let me tell you, it's not going to be easy. In fact, I bet it's going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. Satan is going to try harder and harder when he realizes that you are finally going to start resisting his attacks on your life. He's scared of you. 

But don't lose hope. Keep your eyes on The Lord. Take up your shield, pick up your sword, and fight, for you are a treasure and warrior of the Kingdom.