See, at my church this month we have these special services called Marvelous Mondays. This Monday I went, and the subject was about strongholds. The preacher explained that a stronghold was anything that stands between you and worshipping God.
If you've been fervent in prayer, and suddenly can't utter the first word; that thing that happened that stopped your prayer is your stronghold. The same is true if there is an abrupt cease to church attendance, tithing, witnessing, serving, and any form of growing closer in your walk with the Lord.
Since this past year I experienced such an event, this sermon struck hard!
My heart got broken by an event in my life that I could not understand and certainly couldn't control. The devastation and depression of it all completely stunted my spiritual life. Though I wanted to retain the strong faith I strived to have, I was hit so hard by this "thing" that I had no idea where to begin.
So, part of the sermon was about identifying your strongholds, which I was very clear on what mine seemed to be. But... the other part was learning to overcome and break-free of these strongholds.
Before going there, I do want to say there is no shame in having strongholds! We ALL have them! And, you know, those strongholds can actually be a blessing in our lives. Because if we are able to overcome, God is able to use those shortcomings to make us even stronger warriers for Him!
So, now we get to my favorite part of this sermon, where the preacher shared about our Spiritual Dogs! He explained that each of us fight these daily spiritual struggles. And we should visualize them as 2 dogs.
One dog is the Good Dog. He wants us to do the right thing in all situations. His motto is:
It's never wrong to do right!
Then you have the other side of the fight--the Bad Dog. He wants to trick us into doing what we know is wrong.
Ok, so that visualization is easy enough to do, right? Well, here comes the profound part for me!!
He said in every case it is possible to predict which dog is going to win the fight! Are you ready for this...
The winner will be whichever dog was fed the most!
AHA! So that means all we gotta do is be sure we're feeding the right dog!
What are those foods? Well, I'll give you an idea, but just know it is certainly not comprehensive!
Good Dog Food
prayer
Bible study
church attendance
listening, reading, watching positive media
surrounding yourself with Godly people and influences
Bad Dog Food
doing the direct opposite of what is listed above!
So, I just want to leave you with a reminder to feed and take care of your Good Dog each and every day!
Love,
Jenn
No comments:
Post a Comment