Spiritual Warfare

Yesterday a lady from church commented about our upcoming mission trip to the Czech Republic:

"The more bad things happen, the more you know you're heading in the right direction."

Well, I think I might just be heading in the right direction.

Friday night while spending some time praing and reading the Bible, I decided to commit myself to getting up 15 minutes early every morning to spend some time with Jesus before starting my day. Consequently enough, even though I set two alarms every morning...

• Friday I woke up 5 minutes before I had to leave for work
• Sunday I slept through first service (I was going to bring a friend from school to church with me, too)
• And today I slept in until 15 minutes before I was supposed to leave for school.

While rushing out the door today, I fought back my frustration and recognized that there must be something trying on to keep me from getting that quality time with Jesus. Instead of letting myself getting worked up, I tried over and over to re-focus that energy on praying so that these circumstances would strengthen my spirit instead of break it. But the more I focused on Jesus, the more satan showed that he wasn't ready to give up...

On my way to school, I had to merge into the left lane. I checked the area, had plenty of space to merge, turned on my blinker, and started to pull over. Well, the lady I was pulling in front of did not want me to enter that space, and tried to speed up so that I couldn't pull in. She nearly rear-ended me, blared her for merging into "her space," then turned on her brights and followed me for 10 minutes.

Later, I spent 45 minutes in the library editing the final draft of a paper I had to turn in at 11. About five minutes away from being ready to print, all of the computers in my row blacked out and wouldn't turn on again, making me not only unable to print my paper, but I lost all of my edits. (Thankfully, that teacher was gracious and is letting me turn it in this afternoon.)

Looking back over my day, I can't help but see that there's more going on than meets the eye. (It probably didn't help that last night I was praying that God would work in me and refine me... no matter what it takes. A dangerous prayer!) But I've seen God bring beauty through it, encouraging me through the song "Forgiven" by Skillet, and through Christians around me. One of my classmates sent me this bible verse today, and it really touched my heart:

However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.

1 Peter 4:16

I have a feeling that these trials are far from over, but I have peace and confidence in Christ that it will be worth it in the end... even if the more I seek Him, the more the enemy will try to stop me.