The War Over Our Souls

Before we go any further we need to first understand that there is a price on our heads.
Our greatest enemy, satan, wants nothing more than to see us fall and stay down till it is too late to do anything about it.
And the Creator of the Universe, the One Who created us into existence, GOD, desires us to live in all eternity with Him once and for all and to walk through this life with Him till we get there.

Our lives are far more precious than we realize.

So when we think about our desires for a minute, it’s not that hard to know exactly what lies deep within our hearts.

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”
Proverbs 4:23

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The Word of God tells us that from the heart flows life. So if it is our desire to live in all eternity with the Lord then we must examine our hearts and take a close look at our motives.

Not many people care to do this part because it requires a lot of honesty and in this day and age we are far more comfortable lying to ourselves to feel better than admitting the ugly, or uncomfortable truth.

The uncomfortable truth though is that it is not yet important enough to us. It is not something we truly crave and need to survive the day.

Most people cannot be without their phones, they take it with them everywhere including in the bathroom. It’s a HUGE deal if it breaks and it’s also expensive to replace so most guard it very carefully.

Until we want need God in the same way. Until we cannot rise from our beds without having spoken to Him. Until we will not leave home without consulting with Him. Until the things that jeopardize your relationship with Him such as, what you watch, listen to, and do no longer become acceptable to you because it removes His presence. Living this life in a transformative way will seem unattainable.
But it’s not because those things are not possible to achieve, but because they don’t mean enough to cause change.

See, we have an enemy, for sure. He is evil and all that he desires for you is in complete opposition to the things the Lord has for you. He will use all the things this world has to offer to deter you, distract you, and demotivate you. Including using our own bad habits, past hurts, our scars, and insecurities, politics and culture, entertainment, and education, against us.
Remember he’s the one who can turn a good thing into bad just by distorting its original purpose.

So not only are we fighting this cunning prowler but we must also gain an active awareness of all the things that we allow into our lives that he can use against us and all the things in our past that we can lean on too dependently.

God on the other hand.
He desires our hearts.
He desires our honesty, loyalty, and gratitude.
He desires for us to allow Him to rule the very hearts He molded together.
He desires for us to give Him control of the direction of the very life He gave us.

That’s a hard thought for some and I get it. But all that He does with it when we finally hand it over to Him is always, ultimately, for our good.
He desires our hearts to be full of His joy.
For our minds to finally know true peace.
He longs to take us towards all the things He had prepared for us long before bringing us into this world. All that we would be giving up would be well worth the sacrifice because all that He offers us are things we could never achieve on our own.

Satan, however, desires our fall.
He desires us to live constantly wanting and needing.
He desires us to never truly know peace and to always be seeking a false kind of peace that never satisfies.
He wants us to depend on only ourselves, to think we never need any help and all that we become rests completely on us.
He longs to move us so far away from the Truth, that lies begin to look normal.
He doesn’t want us to focus on eternity or what that will look like.
Everything that he brings into our lives, even if at the time seems good, always brings sorrow and just more longing.

If we are desiring to live eternity with God in Heaven then every decision we make must line up with that outcome; we must start living with Him here and now.

“Everyone who acknowledges Me here on earth, I will acknowledge before My Father in heaven. But everyone who denies Me here on earth, I will also deny before My Father in heaven.”
Matthew 10:32-33

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🚩So before we can jump into the actual steps of living for God, we need to understand that there is a war over our souls, that there is a price on our lives.
🚩We need to understand that everything we do does determine the outcome of our eternity and what we hold close to our hearts ultimately reveals our truest desires and sets that very path before us.

So if you are desiring God, that is a good thing.
Wanting to know more about Him and Who He is is worth investigating.

Let’s stay alert to our enemy so that he doesn’t gain ground against us and let’s take an active stand towards all that we let sit in our hearts. Let’s let our desires and passions be led by God’s Spirit instead of allowing the things in this world, our past, and/or our feelings to tell us what to prioritize.

“Taste and see that the LORD is good.
Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in Him.”
Psalm 34:8

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Some Questions to Think On

What do I consider the most important thing in my life?
Can I put God before that?
If I gave it to Him what could He make of it?
Would the Creator of all, the One standing outside of time, know better than my human, created mind?

Does life feel hard or lonely?
Am I comfortable rejecting the help offered from the One who created me Himself?
Do I long for true peace?
A peace that remains calm even in the midst of chaos.
Is it possible to feel a sense of control in life by releasing control to the One standing outside of time?

Are you tired of striving?
Are you tired of trying to measure up to society or even your own standards and still feeling you’ve failed?
Are you tired of the false hope the world offers yet never satisfies because there is always something new to become or to keep up with?

How do you feel about your marriage?
How do you feel about your kids?
How do you feel about the direction your family life is heading?
How do you feel about the way you manage your time?