Enemies (Part 5)

As promised, there is MORE.  After reading more of Gideon (Judges 7 - 8), I discovered three more principles re:enemies:

Principle:  Comply to the way God wants to defeat the enemy (even if you don't understand).

Principle:  Wait for God's promise.

Principle:  Continue to chase.

Comply to the way God wants to defeat your enemy:  32,000 down to 10,000, years of issues w/anxiety erased in six weeks of "yuck".  You have your own examples, I'm sure.  Stress comes when we think an enemy should be erased in a certain way, certain timetable, certain package.  God's culture does it in His way, His timetable, His package.  Rarely have I seen God defeat an enemy in my life that looked like I had pictured it.  Rarely.  Yet had I been left to my own devices to defeat whatever it was that rose it's ugly head against me, I would have gotten it wrong.  All wrong.  Like really ugly wrong.

Let me just paint a little picture for you to explain.  Several years ago, that Chris of mine and I were at a cross-roads.  We were put in a situation that brought a lot of pain and threatened to destroy our careers.  Clearly - like not in an audible voice but just as loud - I knew God put two words in my head that anchored the chaos surrounding us:  Reveal.  Remove.  

I jumped on my horse of understanding and rode through our circumstances believing that REVEAL and REMOVE meant something exterior to me and my Chris.  However, what God whispered in my heart, head, and spirit in that moment was the way in which he would REVEAL and REMOVE us out of one thing into another thing that He was preparing for us.  

Did I like what was REVEALED?   Nope.  Did I like the process of REMOVAL?  Nope.  But because God causes all things to work together for my good, His way, timetable and package was perfect.  It was spot on.  It was the designed plan of a loving God to get us from point A to point B.

During the process of REVEAL and REMOVE, God didn't leave us hanging.  When we needed it, asked for it, begged, cried, or shouted for it, He provided help.  It came in forms of a promise in His Word, a phone call from a friend, a gift card for a meal out, a shoulder to cry on.  His promises were the nutrients that fed our souls.   

And then, when tiredness set in - the kind of tiredness that a good nights sleep wont cure - we continued to chase the enemy until it was destroyed.  You see sometimes it appears that the enemy has been jailed.  Yet even from jail it's evil can be felt.  After months of knowing our enemy had been REVEALED and REMOVED from us, we felt residual affects of it's damage.  Here's the kicker, we felt the affect but didn't allow it to remain.  When an "oh my word this reminds me of my enemy" came into the brain and tried to cause me to retract, run or regurgitate, we pressed on.  How?  Reminding ourselves of the promises God already made.  Reminding ourselves that the enemy had already been put in jail - without bail - life imprisonment.  We were free.  Now we got to act like it.

If you hang out in Judges and read about Gideon, despite being afraid, he still fought.  He didn't settle with a good majority of the enemy being put down; he took the whole lot of them.  God promised him victory.  He didn't settle for anything less than the trophy that proved he'd won.

Hold on.  Enemies don't stand a chance against those who believe God's promise and wait for Him to deliver in His way.

Christina