My girlfriend asked me recently to pray for her. She said she isn’t feeling peace in her life and with the Lord. She feels as though she is in a spiritual battle and asked how to practically obtain peace and how to give this up to God. My response, I Prayed for wisdom and said:

“Honestly friend, with everything going on in my life right now with Michael and I, I am realizing in the midst of the hurt and the pain life brings, we all live at this point; some sort of hurt. This is exactly where God wants us, to see the fact that we need Him. The only thing I can tell you that I’ve learned recently is to rest in the Lord and constantly pray throughout the day. Pray pray pray! Pray while you are cleaning, while you are cooking, and while you are playing with your precious little one. It is so hard, yet this is exactly what he wants from us, complete dependency on the Lord. Ask for belief in the midst of unbelief. I don’t know that there’s anything more practical to tell you. This is where faith comes in. We are all on our own journeys and God is refining us through the discomfort. We don’t see our need for him when life is perfect. Sometimes I have to pray that God will allow me to simply keep breathing. The world around us is one big spiritual battle. We choose not to see it on a daily basis but this is our reality as believers of Christ. This world is our temporary home and a place where we want the Lord to refine us as we enter our eternal home one day.”

My response came from a deep understanding that life has been challenging and beyond belief for me the last few months. I truly felt I could share my thoughts with her as I am simply reminding myself what I am learning in the midst of hurt and pain; I still feel peace and a true happiness. I looked at my husband the other night and told him I long for him to truly be happy. He expressed the same desire back. I looked at him as he looked broken and beat down and said I wish you could truly experience the happiness I am feeling. Circumstances around me are crumbling, crashing down as a giant wave hits the sand, yet the depths of my soul are still happy. I find peace and happiness reigning in my life, yet my circumstances in life are a complete disaster. I want to hide from the reality that life is messy, but how would I obtain this peace without going through the fire. God has purposely allowed my trials to fall through His hands, knowing I am longing to grow in complete dependency on our Savior. He’s refining me when I’ve got nothing left to offer but breathe flowing from my lungs; I keep breathing.

The reality is I could have never said this one month ago. My life has been incredibly hard yet God is allowing it to happen to strengthen me. I can tell you it hasn’t been pretty, I have fought with the Lord on this plenty of times and still do. I see my husband at the end of himself, nothing left to offer, everything is a mess and yet I long and humbly pray for his heart! I pray that God does a mighty miracle, yet as I pray, God is working in my life and using my husband to plant my feet in solid ground in holding to the truth I claim to believe. Simply put, I wish God wouldn’t use other people to strengthen me but it brings reality that in the midst of their hurt and pain, we still have something to learn through it.

Life is one big Spiritual battle that we choose not to see. Life doesn’t have to be hard and messy for a spiritual battle to be going on in your life. Every decision you make is either a blessing to the Lord or not. That simple! When you look at it like this, you start to realize how many decisions we make in a day and whether or not they are glorifying to God and those around us, or are they hurtful, demeaning, and selfish.

Moment of Truth:

What if we lived as though we saw the spiritual battle around us. I guarantee we would fall to our knees in awe. This world has so much to offer and at the same time we have angels fighting on our behalf against the enemy. What a cool thought! There is enough evil in the world that we already see, I truly don’t know that our minds could handle the spiritual world around us right now. Maybe that is why God has held it from us until we reach our eternal home.