Happy almost May sweet friends!
The plan this month is over something that's not fun to talk
or think about but something that's super real and so very important:
Spiritual Warfare
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
This verse is a great reminder of spiritual warfare which is the leveraging of everything that God promises against everything that opposes God’s purposes. God is a God of purposes and a God of promises. Purposes to redeem the world and promises to judge wickedness. Purposes to grow his beloved children into maturity and promises to unfailingly manage and steward that process. Purposes to love us, to save us and to glorify His name, and promises about our lives and about His great and holy character. Satan and his spiritual forces oppose every single bit of God's purposes and promises. He opposes all of God’s purposes for salvation and redemption, as well as His every single promise for accomplishing it.
Satan battles every single day for the hearts of men and women, trying to turn us away from God and separate us from Him. Satan is crafty and sneaky and sophisticated and he works constantly to rule this world. He schemes against us and he HATES those that obey and follow Christ. He is always watching and waiting for us to have our guard down so that he can attack. Because of that we must be alert and ready at ALL times. Because Satan is so wicked and spiritual warfare is so scary, people often want to just ignore both completely but that's so dangerous. Why?
Because...
- Satan is powerful. He's strong and if we aren't careful and watching for his schemes, he can (and will) overpower us.
- Satan is a predator and an opportunist. He is on the prowl. He is constantly waiting to pounce on those who are unsuspecting and destroy them.
- Satan is not our friend. He HATES us because God loves us. He knows the power of God's love and works relentlessly to drive a wedge between us and God.
- Satan is sneaky and strategic and deceitful. He will lie and cheat and steal to destroy us. He wants us to believe lies about God, about ourselves and about what's really important and true. He doesn't show up with a red face, pitchfork and horns but disguised as something tempting and attractive. He doesn't just use our weaknesses to trip us up, he will also take something we are comfortable and confident in and use it to trip us up.
FYI: I make all plans 31 days long so that they can be
done any month-not just the month I write them for.
done any month-not just the month I write them for.
TO PRINT: You can find a copy of the plan in the folder HERE.