I have been blessed with an incredible mentor, and several other Godly men who have guided me during the different chapters of my life so far. They've always been there to pour into me. During times of success they've reminded me of humility. During times where I've made mistakes, or could have done or be doing things better, they've offered correction in love. During times of doubt they have offered encouragement.
The last few weeks of ministry, and life, have been busy, chaotic, unstructured, abnormal, full, and anything else you can think of along those lines. Wrestling practice started the second week of November. We had the community Thanksgiving service. My wife put in her two weeks notice at work and ended up being promoted. A layman in the church was diagnose with Lou Gehrig's disease. And now the Christmas season is here. It's been a trying and draining time.
There have been good moments thrown in there. The job promotion for my wife was us stepping out in faith and God providing showing us that He would take care of us and that we could trust Him. Our new District Superintendents have been a huge blessing in this first month of their service. And I've gotten to throw out a few ideas for ministry and building the Kingdom. And as I've seen and heard many times, when stuff like this happens be ready for an attack.
I don't remember when my mentor and I had this conversation, but over the last few days I've been thinking about it. Today I sorted through the index cards in my man bag until I found it. There are four weapons the enemy uses against us. Deception, Discouragement, Doubt and Division.
Over the last few weeks I've experienced all of them. I was planning on just writing about discouragement and talking about how it affects so many parts of our lives. But then I remembered the conversation and found the card, and now I realize why it affects so much of life. Satan always uses the first person with each attack. He gets us thinking, "There must be something wrong with me." But know what? There isn't anything wrong with me, and there is nothing wrong with you. Jesus told us that Satan is a liar, the father of lies, and when he lies he speaks his native language (John 8.44).
Over the next few days I want to talk about each one of these. I've already talked about the weapons God has given us, and it is those weapons that protect us from and fight back with, against Satan's. I'll show what weapons we use against each of Satan's. Don't believe the lies he throws at you, believe the truth that God lovingly hands to you.
Peace be with you
I read this book during a troubled time in my marriage, and though I won't say this book saved my marriage it did go a long way to helping me understand my husband. I think every man who is struggling with connection or emotion should read this, and frankly every single woman on the planet should read it in order to understand men a bit better.
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