Warfare

The first time I went to church I was in a car accident about half a block away from the church. I made a left turn and a Jeep I hadn’t seen smashed right into me. There was $12,000 to my car. I had a rental car for over three weeks. The frame was bent. The guy at the auto body shop asked me if I was sure I was okay when he saw the damage to my car.

I didn’t go back to church for quite a while. Although I didn’t really have a strong faith I knew intuitively I was in a spiritual battle. I wasn’t prepared to fight it so I didn’t go back until the summer when a friend convinced me to go. She offered to pray a prayer of protection over me. I even remember finding comfort in that. So that was the beginning of my Christian journey.

I spent a long time going to that church before I attempting taking the same route I did when I was in the accident. It was something small and not horribly inconvenient but God wanted to claim that back. So the day I was baptized I heard God say that he wanted me to go down Broadway. I argued a bit but I decided to be obedient and go that way. I arrived safely and after that day I didn’t think twice if I took that route.

Sometimes we unwittingly concede a lie that we are told. Over a year ago someone made a comment to me that left me believing that my fighting a spiritual battle was somehow responsible for the bad things that were happening to the people I love. I knew in my head that was absolutely silly. The problem was that belief somehow made it into my heart.

Unlike turning left off of Broadway you can’t make a tangible action to claim the truth. I finally confessed to some people that I was feeling that way. They prayed over me and I finally let it go. There are some burdens we are not meant to carry. That was one.

I am learning about spiritual warfare. One thing I have learned this week is that we are only meant to carry so much. I also learned that we can not fight this battle alone.