Do you ever feel like you are being attacked?

Do you ever feel like you are being attacked?

Not attacked as in being mugged on the street by some anonymous masked person, but attacked as in feeling like Satan is waiting for you at every turn, every decision you make?

I have felt like that a lot lately. It’s like Satan has a direct line into my life and he’s making notes on all my areas of weakness and he’s just waiting to attack me when those weak moments arise. 

But that’s not just a feeling, folks.  That’s exactly what Satan does.  1 Peter 5:8 tells us “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, waiting for someone to devour.”

Scary, right? Yeah. Satan knows exactly where we are most likely to mess up or turn away from God’s will for our lives, and he hangs out just waiting for those situations to pop up in our lives. Then he attacks.

There can be so many areas of weakness for us:

Our relationships, be it with friends or our spouse

Disobedience in our kids

Decisions we have to make our jobs

Choosing to be honest and live with integrity

Choosing to be a servant leader in all areas of our lives

Having unwavering faith in God’s abilities to do His will in our lives

Whatever your weakness may be, you can trust that Satan will be lurking around its corner, just waiting to attack you when the situation arises.

But if we read on in 1 Peter, verse 9 says “Stand firm against him and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.”

Every single Christ follower deals with this issue.  We are all in the same boat.  How encouraging is that?! Everyone feels our pain and God has given us a family of believers to share the burden and to do life with. 

James 4:7 tells us to “humble yourselves before God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and he will come close to you.”

This may be the best verse I’ve read lately.  It offers us so much hope. If we stand firm in our faith and trust that God will bring us through our temptation and our struggle, eventually, the devil will give up and that temptation will no longer have a hold on us.  And Satan will FLEE from us.

If this is an area that you struggle with, what are your next steps? Maybe you need to spend some time in prayer asking God to help you stand firm in Him and to resist the devil when he strikes.  Maybe you need to reach out to a fellow believer in Christ and ask them to pray with you through your struggle and ask them to encourage you to stand firm. You may even find that they have a similar struggle and you can be praying for them while they pray for you.

Whatever your struggle may be, we can find rest and hope in God’s promise that if we come close to Him, He will come close to us.

And the closer we are to Him, the farther Satan will flee.

One thing we're aware of as a lead team is that this transition time could be a convenient time for Satan to exploit our weaknesses, both as a church and as individuals.  He would love nothing more than to disrupt BridgeWay’s mission of connecting people to Jesus, each other, and God's purpose. However, we continue to be hopeful by the amazing effort you are all showing in continuing this mission to the tri-county area.

In fact, this past week, we met with Scott Sherwood, our district superintendent, to go over a new list of potential candidates. Our team is hopeful that God, in His perfect timing, is bringing us one step closer to our next lead pastor.

- Mary Miller