The Problem Is You

We give the enemy entirely too much credit. Not all things that happen to us are from the devil. I believe that God will allow certain situations to happen when he has given us an assignment and things have to happen to push us to another level. Because of our impatience or a need to control the situation, we hurriedly jump in to fix it thinking that we can do it better than God; thus causing strife in our own lives then blaming the outcome on the enemy.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the devil is real. It is his mission to steal, kill and destroy our belief that God is the way, the truth and the light. Let’s talk for a minute about how the enemy attacks us. The enemy can only attack you through your own self doubt and insecurities. The enemy uses what you are feeling, saying and thinking about yourself and your circumstances against you. The enemy will work overtime to get into your thoughts, that bamma has no days off! That’s why it’s so important to change how you think, be intentional with who you surround yourself with, guard what you speak and limit who you allow access to your heart.

For instance, I’ve struggled the majority of my life with my weight. My insecurities about weight started at home. My mom used to fuss at me about how I was always growing out of my clothes, she never called me fat, but I do remember being conscious of my weight. When I was in the second grade this little boy teased me everyday and one day he called me a fat pig. When he picked on me he was really pointing out an insecurity that I already had and struggled with. I don’t think there was ever a time until recently that I didn’t think I was fat or say out loud that I looked fat. Because I thought it and spoke it I acted on it; sometimes over indulging in the very foods that were causing me to be fat. The devil didn’t make me eat that cake I chose to eat the cake. When I was diagnosed with high blood pressure because of my weight, the devil wasn’t busy I was.

An idle mind is the devil’s playground. Have you ever watched those shows that give us a deep look into people who struggle with addictions and wonder what happened to them that was so bad that they ended up in those kinds of situations? I think that they’ve simply given up. They let their insecurities and disappointment with past failures cause them to settle into a life where the enemy is bigger and greater than God. Walking around with guilt and shame begets more of the same. I carried around the guilt and shame of a cheating husband for years. I tried to control the situation and it still turned out bad. I remember when infidelity first hit my marriage I thought that if I gave my ex more sex that he wouldn’t cheat on me anymore. I mean we were humping like jack rabbits. I thought I was fixing the problem until I realized that it wasn’t my problem to fix. Giving him more sex and sex on demand only increased his appetite for it and brought on more infidelity. He had the problem and I was just fanning the flames. I was praying to God to fix him; to remove the women; to get him to see the value in me, our marriage and our family and God kept turning up the heat. The enemy was attacking me, because I believe that he told God, “She doesn’t need you Lord. She is determined to fix it herself” and God let me tire myself out trying to do His job. When I surrendered that control to God, I realized that God was fixing me, removing my ex, and allowing me to see the value in myself. God was healing me. I’ve learned that it is not my job to fix anybody… I can only fix me!

Sometimes extremely unfortunate things do happen to good people through no fault of their own. I believe that those are the darkest times when we need to hold on to our faith and trust in the word of God the most. We have to believe that there is something good that we can take away from those experiences. Ultimately, we are not the authors of life or death, we are the vessels used to create it. We have free will to decide how we want to live our lives and by what standards we choose to abide by. We all have the same 24 hours in a day and can use them productively or destructively. Think victor versus victim. Which one do you want to be?