Are You Ready for Battle…Part II

by | Aug 21, 2020 | Church, Family Life, Marriage, Parenting, Prayer, Society, Spirituality

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog on being ready for battle, the spiritual battle.  This is a topic that I feel we cannot talk too much about.  This topic cannot be ignored as we seem to do in the world today.  Evil is everywhere and evil seeks to destroy us little by little every day.

I spend a lot of time reading and reflecting upon the book of Job.  As a reminder, Job was a wealthy man who lived with his large family.  He was a holy and righteous man, who always sought to avoid sin and do the will of God.  The devil asks God if he could gain permission to punish Job and put adversity in his life.  Satan argues with God that the only reason Job was so good is because God abundantly blessed him.  Satan was sure that he could get Job to curse God if he could torment and test Job.  God has great faith in Job and gives Satan the permission he desired to test Job.  Long story short, even with all the terrible things Satan did to Job, he remained strong in his faith and loved God amidst all the hardships he endured.  He never cursed God…He remained faithful.

When I think of all the things that Job went through in such a short time, I only pray that I could be as strong as Job is.  I know that amid suffering I tend to run away from it instead of towards it.  I want it to end as quickly as it comes on.  I know for me one of the easiest ways that Satan tries to get me to curse God is telling me that if God isn’t working as quickly as I want him to that I can certainly do it myself.  He tempts me into thinking that I do not need God in my life and I certainly do not need God to do anything for me.  I tend to have a Lone Ranger mentality and have no desire to be dependent on anybody.

This insidious lie has gotten me into trouble more than once.  Now, of course, I did not say the words, “God I curse you!” but my actions surely showed otherwise.  God desires for me to be dependent on his grace and to remove the “Lone Ranger” mentality from my life.

In family life, when trials come, we think we are responsible to fix them on our own.  Fights with siblings, marriage difficulties, mental health concerns, grief over the loss of a loved one, etc.…we desire to be strong!  We desire to fix them on our own with no outside help.  God has never asked us to do this, nor does he want us to do this.  God desires to be right there during all of this.  He wants to be the one who fixes our weaknesses and our problems.  The devil wants us to believe that God would be disappointed in us for even having problems and we have all the tools to fix things on our own.

Right now, in our world there are so many things that we just cannot control.  COVID, presidential candidates, racism, and the list goes on.  The devil is tempting us to think that God has abandoned us, that God does not care.  That is a LIE…a blatant lie.  God is here, He is more present than any of us can even fathom.  The problem is, we do not allow Him to help us.  God is not going to insert Himself into our world without an invitation.  He respects us too much to intrude without invitation.

My prayer for all of us, myself included, is that we invite God into our lives.  God is already there, He desires to help, He desires to heal us and our world, and He has not and never will abandon us.  We need to know we were not built to do things alone…Even the Lone Ranger needed Tonto, and we all need our Savior.

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Tara Brooke

Tara Brooke is a wife, mother, educator, and child of God.  Tara has worked in various aspects of ministry in the Catholic Church for over 20 years, her last years as a Director of Marriage and Family Life for her local diocese.  She now stays home and tends to the needs of her growing and beautiful family.  She has three biological children and two adopted children, both with Down Syndrome. She loves helping engaged couples grow in their understanding of the Sacrament of Marriage as well as helping enrich already married couples in growing in holiness together.  She resides in Bismarck, ND with her amazing husband, Deacon Dan! 

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