We are at a crossroad. We have come up against a brick wall in our lives. It is a time when prayers seem to hit a glass ceiling that cannot be shattered. Our lives are in upheaval with no end in site.
And we are tired of the spiritual battle that has inflicted this family in so much grievous pain. We are at our wits end, nearing the end of our ability to fight any longer.
To those who claim there is no evil in the world, no devil, they have either never faced such, or believe themselves to be strong enough to figure out and overcome all obstacles in their lives.
But it is a lie.
When the world is turned upside down…
The world is very quickly turning upside down. There are powers in play that we have no ability to fight against.
We did not choose the battle.
Soldiers who are sent to war involuntarily do not choose who their enemies are. They are sent to fulfill the battle cry, even at the risk of losing their very lives in the process.
And their enemies may not have been anything but friends were the circumstances different.
They are thrust into battle without choice. And they must follow their leaders, or give in to the enemy to try to stave off the inevitable.
We appear to be losing the battle…
But we have not lost the war.
Every part of our lives, every day, is engaged in some sort of battle. We fight the displeasure of where we work, and the traffic we must endure so that we can get to and from that job.
Our house may be in a bad neighborhood, but we have no way to move out. We are trapped.
Or perhaps the car broke down or the washer broke, and we have no money to repair either.
A hundred dollars here and a hundred dollars there add up rapidly when there is less and less money coming in.
It appears hopeless and completely dark before the dawn.
At least that is what we are told.
Then the light…
Suddenly, through the gloomiest of times, a tiny line of light shines through the clouds. It is so small that we, so focused on survival, often miss it. Yet it is there, growing larger as our darkness looms before our eyes.
We are in that darkness. Every turn is met with obstacles; things we, in our own power, cannot surmount.
Finances are rapidly disappearing in a desperate effort to find a place to live. The house we were to sell has a title issue that no one knew about for decades.
And we have to move, leaving the place of security behind.
But to where?
That is the question.
God has challenged our ability to rise above the darkness before. And we have gradually gotten to a place of enduring quite a lot.
But this is the greatest challenge of all.
On the horizon, there are fuel shortages and food shortages. To move may mean we will have no way to drive our possessions to a new location.
The prices of everything is jumping daily, up over 30-40% in many cases for basic necessities. And all we have will be in storage.
There is a war on…
And the soldiers are being attacked.
Those who do not bow down to the enemy are targeted for destruction.
It isn’t always in the form of a job loss or health problems.
Sometimes it comes in the form of a spiritual or psychological attack.
Remember in another post I spoke of the battlefield being in the mind?
This is one of those battles. This is where the enemy likes to target us. Distractions, and keeping circumstances muddied and delayed to prevent us moving forward. Those are his tools.
They are affective only if we play into his hands. We cannot avoid them. And we cannot give in to the demands thrust upon us. There is no compromise with evil. If we were to succumb just once in a minor demand, we will have lost the war.
We must resist the urge to give up.
The only way out is to pray. And to trust that God knows what He is doing.
The move is clear. The sheepskin was set out and showed that God is guiding us in this direction.
Now the challenge is to wait. And to trust.
So far, those efforts have been met with deflections at every turn.
We will not give up. We will not give in. But we cannot uphold ourselves. We lean heavily on God who helps us to bear the burden as we face the unknown.
Reality is coming home to roost…
So many people in our soft society have been faced with unprecedented hardships. Many have unexpectedly found themselves homeless, unable to pay for their home because of a job loss or downgrade in pay.
Food supplies are coming under attack. Strange shortages due to fires and plane crashes into food distribution centers and chicken houses have occurred in ways no one could every fathom. Nothing at this scale in so short a time has occurred before in the history of our food supply chain.
And it is being ignored in the media. Or it is labeled as “hysteria” or “conspiracy”.
Fuel prices have skyrocketed. Now there are predictions of shortages for diesel. Trucks and trains both require that diesel fuel source to transport food and goods throughout the nation.
Trains have already begun to limit shipments before this came into focus.
And we are all caught in a net we cannot get out of.
For those not yet affected, it is going to hit hard as the net tightens across every aspect of our supply chain.
So now what?
We pray. We wait. And we trust.
There are so many displaced people across the globe today. People are fleeing their homes from attacks by war of one sort or another. Internal national struggles as well as external threats have sent millions out of their place of comfort into the arms of poverty.
Evil is real. The presence of it is in the outward unleashing of all that is happening globally right now.
It is orchestrated. And it is coming from those who are cooperating with the evil that seeks to destroy all of humanity.
We pray that it will not go as planned.
Perspective…
In perspective, God has provided well for us.
He has placed in our path those who will help us finalize the title correction and house sale.
And He has provided us a place to go.
We will move without debt. And that was always our goal.
The house will sell. We will have what we need.
It will be uncomfortable for a time. But we will be taken care of.
God has never left us. And He has never let us down.
We just need to keep all that in perspective.
God’s timing is always perfect.
And we can help so many others once we have experienced the circumstances that they may be going through.
We have in our past before, but not to this extreme extent.
And some of us in the family have never experienced what it is like to be without. It is a good lesson. Uncomfortable, but necessary. One that only experience can teach.
This is one of those teachable moments. And God is taking that opportunity very seriously.
We just need to keep it all in perspective. God’s perspective.
He knows what He is doing. And His timing is always perfect.