by: Kelly Pierce

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with 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

Christians often face the enemy thinking they are fully prepared; yet, many find themselves trapped, or lost, and maybe even feeling broken down.  Often we feel alone in our struggles and hide each tear with a smile, hoping that no one will notice our struggle inside. Yes, not all Christians may be as strong as they believed.  It is easy to become sucked into the enemies lies.  We try so hard to hide what we may feel; because the enemy tries so hard to win his fight, leaving us feeling condemned and alone.  The best tools you have to fight back are the weapons that God has equipped us with.  God’s word tells us that we have the power to demolish strongholds.  It is important to recognize these thoughts, capture them, and cast them out before a seed can even be planted.  Sometimes we may feel alone in our struggle but every Christian faces the same enemy.  Have you ever experienced life so perfect, so very sweet and tender, where every beat of it, every second that passes, is just as it should to the beat of God’s drum?  When you reach this point of divine love every bone every miniscule cell wants nothing more then to praise God.  You feel so sure of yourself and your surroundings, that nothing could possibly go wrong; nothing could bring you down… not even the tiniest storm.  My soul desires to live here as a Christian.  I praised God, thanked him continually for loving me, for blessing me, everything I had I gave back to him in abounding praise.   As perfect as it was in my sheer happiness it only took the tiniest storms, one after another, not knowing or understanding how the devil was out to steal my happiness.  I admit I wasn’t prepared with the armor of God and when those storms came through they roared and took down the best of me with them.  Being a Christian does not mean we are exempt from worldly things.  A Christian still has emotion, hopes, dreams, moves forward, loves unconditionally, never stops, and never gives up.  We never know what to expect. Some trials come and go and some are larger than others.  Trials in life can be smooth and sometimes they can just overwhelm us so much that it literally knocks us over.  I wondered what happened to that happy person who before had loved and worshiped God with all my might.  The enemy lies so immensely that sometimes our might want’s to give up and stop fighting.  To turn around and never look back.  When you‘ve been there you know it‘s easier to do this than to fight for something you once believed in.   I know that we can all relate to times of love and praise being overcome by what the enemy plants in our minds.  God has equipped us to handle the high and low tides of our lives.  His word warns us to be prepared.  It’s important to never get too comfortable or to stop studying God’s word.  Leaving behind the armor that God has equipped us with causes us to become vulnerable.  The enemy goes by many names but one of most significant is LIAR.  His goal in his long punished life is to steal your joy, deprive you of your peace, and strip you of your faith.  It is up to you as a Christian to recognize your breaking point so that the Devil cannot sneak in.  Remember that our armor is not of this world, it is the battle in our minds that we must prepare ourselves for.  Our most powerful posture is humility before God.  I challenge you to capture every argument, every pretension that the devil throws in there and make it obedient to God.  Do this everyday.   Fall in love with him over and over again.  In doing so we increase in faith and these are the weapons we use in the battle of spiritual warfare.