Warfare...of the Spiritual Nature

Saturday was an interesting day. It was a day where everything seemed to be working against us, but yet great things happened.

Waking up, Jennifer and I prepared for a support appointment arranged for 10:00 that morning. Getting ready to leave, we called ahead to confirm our meeting. They answered, "We're pretty busy this morning. Could you meet us at 2:00 instead?"

A slight set back, but we could manage. Back into our apartment we went. 12:30 came...ring, ring. It was them. "Our driveway is too muddy for your car to get in with all the rain. Could we meet at a restaurant at 1:30 instead?" Okay, another deterrent but it sounds fine with us...back to getting ready for us.

A couple minutes pass. Ring...ring. "Yeah, it's us again. A slight emergency at work just happened. We'll call you when it's over and we can meet this afternoon." By now our hearts felt like they had gone through an adrenaline roller coaster. Go and Stop. Stop and Go. Would our appointment happen today or not? I could feel a small portion of me being frustrated and almost wishing it wouldn't...

Nevertheless, we prayed for it to happen. Then we made our way to a small coffee shop next to the restaurant. When they called again, we wanted to be close by in case something else occurred.

Walking in to the coffee shop, we were met unexpectedly by some of our friends from Sunday school. We talked, and they encouraged us as we prepared once again for our meeting. Ring..ring. "We're good to go. Meet you at the restaurant in 15." We prayed again that the meeting would indeed happen.

And sitting in the restaurant 15 minutes later, we began one of the best meetings we have had in awhile. Sharing our ministry and hearing of how God worked in their lives, our hearts were encouraged as we got to know this Godly couple even better. God had not only set up the meeting and maintained it, he also had a purpose for it...to get a couple excitedly involved in our ministry and possibly even open up a new church for us to share with in the future.

How often we don't realize we are in a spiritual battle. The enemy doesn't want us to get on campus and will try numerous things to try and discourage us from meeting with people. Jennifer and I had felt discouraged before the meeting. Even the couple we met with wanted to just schedule the meeting for another day because of everything that had happened. Yet God worked through it all to make the meeting happen. He had even given us an encouraging time with friends at a coffee shop in the process. His providence is indeed amazing...

Yes, we are indeed in a war zone. The enemy tries everything he can think of to discourage our hearts. Let us never forget though that we are on the victor's side and that we have the atomic bomb of prayer at our disposal...