Stop Striving, Sisters. Start Living.

Worship Leader Grace Balint sings "I Got Saved"

Sisters, we've been warned countless times in Scripture. We are in a spiritual battle every day while we're on planet earth. We have an evil enemy. He is also God's enemy. He can only lie.

But God will only speak all-powerful, lifesaving truth. 

• "God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that he should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?" (Numbers 23:19).
• "My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:29).

The battle lines were physically drawn in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. We are  warned by God that the serpent, or literally the devil, is more crafty than any other beast of the field that God had made." (Genesis 3:1).

That's a red flag. Right? Okay, we have been warned he's like a snake! And please tell me who has ever heard a snake approaching them? I mean, seriously, a snake doesn't make noise; there's no warning that he's nearby and ready to strike, right? He can slither right up to us and get close enough to slide right across our designer ankle boots even before we know he's there! 

Today our battle lines are spiritual, meaning "the weapons we fight [the devil] with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish (BOOM!) arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).  

No striving, Sister. We walk by faith and our unstoppable weapons are the armor of God, our fervent, faithful prayers, and our belief that every word of God in Scripture is the truth. And all, including us, are powered by the Holy Spirit of God! 

As women who follow Jesus we should be fully aware we have this deceitful enemy and we're girded up with the truth of God's word. Jesus shares truth of Scripture with us to alert us about the ways of our evil enemy:

• "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).
• "He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies he is speaking his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44).

And ever since that day described in Genesis 3, when the devil successfully created doubt of God's goodness and love in Eve's mind and then Adam's, all hell broke loose on the world -- with God's permission, of course. 

And the spiritual battle between God and the devil began: confusion, lies, competition, idolatry, unfulfilled longings, jealousy, murder, and all because sin had come into the world! Eve was striving to be like God. Eve wanted control and power. She wanted to be worshiped instead of worshiping God. It's like what is going on in our culture today. Right?

The enemy uses the same tactics today he used with Eve -- relentless mental tormenting, creating division in families, and lying to us about God's ability to remain faithful and loving toward us.

He's always fishing in our minds to discover what lie will hook us into believing him and capture our thoughts with fear and anxiety. He strives to convince us to not wait for God to act on our behalf but instead to just wanting to take control of our own lives!  

This is where the striving comes in. Control freaks. That's what we become when the enemy has ensnared us. We believe the lie that we must control people and circumstances because we must protect and provide for ourselves. That's when we've stopped trusting God and put all our trust in ourselves. Striving. Yep. It's awful. We wear ourselves out trying to control. Trying to be accepted. Trying to get approval. Trying to be loved by someone. 

Hey, wait a minute. Isn't that what Jesus did on the cross? His powerful, agonizing death on the cross covered all of our sins and granted us the privilege of becoming His children who are privy to all the joys, promises, power, and blessings He offers to all of His children.  Yes!

Unconditional love and grace are ours in Christ. Those are supernatural gifts that the world does not understand. These undeserved gifts are only found in surrendering our lives to Jesus. We are chosen. We are forgiven. We've been saved! And we've been changed. Radically changed into radiant lights for the glory of God.

We need to stop striving and start living that abundant life Jesus died to give each one of us. (John 10:10).

All we have to do is believe the truth, Sisters.

💕 Polly
Matthew 5:16