Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
8/31/2021
Why is Satan trying to destroy your relationships II ?
Relationships within a family can often be trying. We love them…but sometimes we don’t like them. Honestly, sometimes you just wanna walk away and be done because you’re so angry. They just can’t seem to see what you’re trying to tell them and help them with. Surprisingly, they are often saying exactly the same thing about us.
But the truth is if you’re in a healthy happy growing relationship with friends or family the devil is going to be coming to do everything he can to ruin it. You can count on it!
Satan is going to try and convince you that you should be happy and peaceful and content in relationships at all times. And if you’re not, then you need to move on… this is just not the one for you.
It doesn’t just have to be in a marriage, it could be with one of your children or an In-law or it can easily be someone in your close circle of friends. The truth is… that’s a lie. The best of marriages and the best relationships have their trials, and they sometimes even have their seasons. Sometimes people and that includes us, have said and done some pretty dumb things that really have left some gaping wounds and some sizable scars.
Some of these expressions have left rivers of hurt that many people have just given up on within their own families. They say that they have forgiven them but they really don’t want anything to do with them at all.
I had a skirmish recently with someone that I love dearly and that I would give my life for but I walked out of the room and my final words were…
I just can’t win!
The exchange left me very disturbed and upset. I had a hard time getting to sleep. And then I was up at 3:30 in the morning for several hours because my heart was still just aching. And so I kept praying.
And the next day it hit me like a ton of bricks, we were under a spiritual attack! Satan wants to expose our weaknesses, our insecurities, and our faults and drive a wedge between you and them. He prowls around like a lion looking for the weak and confused. Relationships are at the very top of his hit list.
If you haven’t noticed Satan has a special way of getting under our skin and it’s important that we do whatever we can to fight him off with the weapons that God has given us. Look, as Christians we’re always going to be under spiritual attack but when it comes to relationships it’s a war zone. And if we continue to rely on our own self, our own strength, I guarantee you, you will lose this battle.
It’s imperative that we listen to God‘s instruction and put on the whole armor of God. We have to use the spirit of discernment to realize what happens in the spirit realm. The light has got to go on so that we can see the truth of where this attack is coming from. Doesn’t it change the playing field completely if you know that an enemy has come in to sabotage your relationship? Doesn’t that take the weight off of who’s fault this is? My fault, your fault. If we really love one another and if we really love God, are we going to allow this angry, unforgiving, oversensitive spirit to come between you and the obvious person God has put in your life? Are we so high and mighty, and so righteous, and so good in every area of our life that we have removed every spec from our own eye so we can judge this other person’s rashness
or ill-spoken words and not forgive them?
When an accident happens and two cars are totaled and people are injured, it doesn’t matter anymore who’s fault it was? Isn’t everybody a loser when we have an emotional wreck, and an argument and the angry exchanges leave everyone wounded and bleeding?
Jesus said to forgive one another as I have forgiven you. He said take the log out of your own eye before you try to take the splinter out of somebody else’s. Jesus pursued us when we were still sinners when we didn’t want anything to do with him at all, and yet, he died for us. Ephesians 4:32: "Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you."
When we get into one of these skirmishes it’s critical that we see the price that Jesus paid for us in our sin and extend that same love and forgiveness to someone else especially… when they don’t deserve it.
We need to guard our relationships like the treasures that they are. They are the actual bedrock built on Christ that helps us walk through these Satanic war zones that want to destroy the family and destroy every one of our relationships. Until we see that we are in a war zone and that we are in a spiritual fight we will be weak and ineffective soldiers for Christ.
Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ! It is not rituals, ceremonies, and/or sacraments. It is a personal, spiritual, loving relationship with a real and living Savior, Jesus Christ. It is on that truth that we can have those same types of relationships with others.
So, whoever they are…Whatever happened…lay it at the foot of the cross and do something! Reach out and make it right and that doesn’t include them agreeing that they were wrong too. Be humble, as Christ was and you will see the good fruit begin to grow again.
Pray this week for the Holy Spirit to give you the courage to really forgive.
Glorious Day-Kristian Stanfill/Passion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s4UblPViiI
