Enduring The Arrows
As I wrote about last time, recently doors to grow my impact and influence have been opening up all over the place. God has opened those doors and continues to open them! But, as many believers will be familiar with, there seems to be a pattern in my life where fresh off of a high point the enemy will launch an attack on me. It happens without fail. In so many ways these attacks can really test my faith in the moment, but eventually they always end up strengthening my faith instead. So it also happens without fail that, if I’m patient, the Devil’s plans always blow up in his face! Praise the Lord that this difficult reality leads to great victory if we let it!
These experiences bring a few verses to mind that I want to get into. Before I do that though, I’ll share how I was attacked recently. In hindsight, what happened wasn’t that big of a deal at all, minor inconveniences at most, really. For me, these little wrenches in my daily life prove to be my greatest irritations though. Satan has certainly studied what will be most effective in tripping me up while I’m in progress. More on that later. What gets me most about these frustrating occurrences is that all of the inconveniences that actually have an impact on me are usually connected to my condition with DMD.
Here’s what exactly went down on this particular occasion: Firstly, let’s just say, that on this day my stomach was especially bothering me. And it wasn’t because I was hungry. So there were several undesired trips in and out of my wheelchair throughout the day. I’ll leave that there. The point being that it takes a whole lot of tedious work in going through this transfer process. I aim to do it as few times as possible every day. The more I have to do it, the more understandably annoying it gets.
Other than that my headrest got whacked out of position in the morning. It can take some time to get it back to where it’s comfortable and as you can imagine I never really plan on having to fix it. My joystick has also been a bit glitchy lately, so it malfunctioned later on, causing me to crash, which got its mount whacked out of place too. The same principle applies because I’ve got to take the time to get it right so I can drive properly. Mind you, all the while someone must help me do these things. You see my frustration?
Honestly none of this would be too irritating if I didn’t have anything else going on that day. But that simply wasn’t the case. I had a social gathering that I was going to that evening, so it’s not very thrilling to have to handle unscheduled nonsense like those things all day! Of course all this took up the entirety of my time until I left. This put me in a funk and I felt unable to actually connect with people that night. So as you can tell, each of the day’s hitches were either directly or indirectly correlated to my physical situation. This is just a small sample of the nightmarish captivity of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. It’s enough to make you want to scream! If you’re not careful it can even lead to serious anger and despondency!
Let’s be real, I’ve absolutely gotten to that point in the past. But I’m glad to say that I am clearly getting better at countering these attacks on my success! By my account that was one of the worst days I’ve had in awhile. Thankfully the display of my displeasure was nowhere near as ugly as it has occasionally been earlier in my life! This is a welcomed sign of personal improvement! It means the enemy’s tactics are gradually losing some of their validity in deterring me. With that being said, there still remains an enemy.
An enemy that wages not a physical war, but a spiritual one. Don’t be so naïve to think that this isn’t exactly what was going on in the instance I described! Spiritual warfare happens at multiple levels and can become very complicated because the souls of men are at stake. The opposition of God desires man’s destruction, while the Lord aims to bring salvation. And the Father uses His children to grow His kingdom, so they become the devil’s number one targets.
This is why Ephesians 6:11-13 is so important to understand: “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” I’m not going to take the time to explain every part of the armor of God that the passage continues to detail, but it goes on to describe the fiery darts of the wicked one and how faith is what is able to quench them. So in order to endure the spiritual arrows that are shot our way, we must practice faith and do what is possible to grow it. The more we do this the more ground we take!
1 Peter 5:8 says this as well, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” That tells us just how crafty and creative Satan is willing to get in order to defeat us. He doesn’t care about us one bit. He will do whatever it takes to crush us, as any predator will do to its prey. Therefore, we’ve got to be watchful and aware of every possible tactic! That adversary will throw all of his weapons at us until he finds the one, or several, that works best against us. He is paying attention to us, so we need to pay attention!
The other part of this is that Lucifer really doesn’t want to lose. He is actually terrified of those who pose a threat to him by serving the savior, Jesus! The devil is desperate. He knows he’s going to lose and yet he believes he will be victorious. Wickedness has a natural way of contorting one’s reality like that. You and I have nothing to be afraid of! We can take pride in the attacks we face because it means our walk with the Lord has been effective! Be ready for the bullets, but be ready to dodge them. You’re on the winning team and protected by the winning leader!
“We ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure,” – 2 Thessalonians 1:4
“…And He has taken it (our debt in sin) out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” – Colossians 2:14-15
“And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” – Romans 16:20
