This is one of my very favorite songs!!! Most of the time when I hear it, I close my eyes and hit repeat on my phone as I pray and invite the Holy Spirit to guide my day!! However, this particular day I was singing it thru gritted teeth. Can anyone relate?
Surely, I am not the only woman out there who has had those days. Oh, you know what I’m talking about…. Those days when you cannot stand yourself lol!!! Everything and ERRRYBODY gets on your nerves!!! Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is going right. The kids are fighting, your house is a mess, you have no food in your house, the laundry is overflowing, and you’re expecting company in 3:30:26 (to be precise) – oh, and the dog…. The DOG is sick!!!
Seriously all this was one of my days last week. I was on edge all day; honestly, I drove myself crazy – and to top it all off, there was an internet outage in our area for 5+ hours…. Which is how we watch the weekly video clip for the Bible study!!! I had so many things to get done but I felt like a dog chasing its own tail!
I have a linen closet that is super tiny; and for whatever reason when they built this house they decided to hang the door to open inward, making it very difficult to get inside – let alone store anything. On this particular day, I was going in the closet to get clean sheets; but some blankets had fallen behind the door, making it very hard to open – so it needed some extra force to open it.
So, imagine a grown woman pushing her weight against the door as she sings with gritted teeth…. HOLY SPIRIT You ARE WELCOME HERE COME Flood This Place AND FILL THE ATMOSPHERE. It was at that moment it hit me!!! See this Bible study that has been taking place at my home is on the Armor of God (Priscilla Shirer). I’m not sure if any of you are familiar with this study; and if you’re not, I highly suggest you check it out! Priscilla discusses the pieces of armor and how that Satan is strategic in his plan to derail you. Now, I’m not saying that everything that happens is caused by Satan! No, of course not – let’s not give him that much credit. But what I will say is, he knows how to move the puppets sometimes! In the first lesson in the armor of God, Priscilla tells about her neighborhood harvest party. She writes.…
“It was one of the more creative displays I’ve ever seen at the annual trunk-or-treat kids’ festival that a church in my neighborhood hosts during the fall. One guy connected a large, flat, wooden tabletop to the side of his pickup truck, cut five to six medium-sized holes in it, and draped it with a curtain. Sticking up through five or six holes was a family of wiggly, happy hand puppets. Kids were standing in line to climb up into the truck bed to try bopping the puppets on the head with a big, cushy hammer before the figures ducked and disappeared down the hole and out of sight. Whack-a-Mole — the church parking lot version.“One little guy, however, no more than five years old, got tired of waiting. Bored with the shenanigans, he slipped out of line, ambled around to the side of the truck for a better look, and then — for whatever curious reason — grabbed a handful of that curtain and yanked it clean off the playing surface. Suddenly, instead of six cutesy puppets swaying playfully in the evening air, there were three grown adults with both arms poking up through bare wood, a puppet on each hand, their identities immediately revealed.“Even the under-ten crowd got the message that night: there is something you can’t see working underneath the surface, controlling and manipulating what you can.”~ Priscilla Shirer
Like Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12 –
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
It was at that moment as I was pushing in on the linen-closet door that this story came to mind; and it changed my thoughts and attitude for the rest of the day. I would love to say to you that I am full of grace every day, that my words just flow with wisdom and my kids just fall at my feet asking what they can do next. But let’s be real…. Let’s be raw here!!! That is not real life!!
Life happens, things happen, the car breaks down, your husband accidentally takes your car keys to work with him after you’ve searched for them for an hour, your van has to be in the shop twice in one month. Are you getting the picture? LIFE HAPPENS!!!
But we as women of God MUST put on our armor and fight with the right weapons!!! WE must be women of prayer, women of honor, women of peace!! God doesn’t want us constantly running around like I did on Monday, nor does he want us fretting and living a defeated Christian life. One thing I read this that really stuck out to me is that everything that occurs in the visible physical world is directly connected to the wrestling match being waged in the invisible spiritual world. Satan is invisible but he is not fictional!
And when I said earlier “let’s be raw”…. that’s because I want you to know that I too struggle. This is where God is growing me at in this particular season of my life. To activate the armor more and to be more strategic in my prayer. My dad told me years ago that he follows a simple rule: BBB (Bible Before Breakfast)!! He takes time every morning to pray and read the Bible before feeding his physical man! What a way to live!!
So, ladies!!!! Let’s suit up!! Let’s be women of honor, women of prayer, and women of peace!!!! Let’s allow our light to flow into others!!! Let’s be Jesus with skin on!!!! Until next time, friends!!!!
Sisters in Christ 