When we’re fighting and struggling remember things aren’t always as they seem. Sometimes it’s not the face value of the person, thing, or circumstance that has you going, it’s the dark forces that know exactly your most vulnerable area that get you most riled us.
Finally draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power. Put on the armor of God that you may stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with all spirits in the heavens. Eph 6:10-12
For myself a huge turning point came when a zealous Christian boldly declared my five-year fight with the neighbors over the property line was a spiritual battle that required help from above. That it was useless for me to fight it on my own, it would only burn me out. That much he had right.
We all have struggles we can’t begin to imagine how we’re going to handle. Our best and only real victor is God doing it for us. Using his tools - compassion, love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness - does prepare the soil for Him, but it is He who will deliver us. Jesus himself taught us we can not fight violence with violence, it only leads to more destruction. Nor can we deliver ourselves. I recently read a church sign that said ‘The love of power will destroy us but the power of love will renew us.’
Thankfully I had had enough spiritual savvy to not buy into the neighbours terrific efforts to ‘make me move,’ but it wasn’t until a real flesh & blood bold Christian saw the perfectly good trees they cut down in their yard that provided much needed shade and privacy in my yard that he saw how complex and enmeshed the situation had gotten. He named it for what it was and enlightened me of who my real opposition was. He hammered home that I didn’t know who I was in Christ and got me reading Ephesians - a great book to study. It was the first time I got really excited about finally gaining freedom and resolution over this deeply entrenched problem I found myself in.
Once I caught on that it was God our Father’s job to fix things, I was able to further surrender to Him, and focus on His victory, not mine. And I seen Him demonstrate his love, power and wisdom, his strength and his character in astounding ways. And I’m here to tell you it bowled me over. It was nothing I ever could’ve imagined in a million years - the things he orchestrated could never have come to pass in my own doing and knowledge.
I came to deeply believe that fighting in our own strength, no matter how righteous we think we are, just wears us out plain and simple. We all have vulnerable areas that take us down but when we let go of how we think things should go to hold on to God and His Word, we can hold our ground and He will delivers us.
I believe He sent me that zealous character to get me going in the right direction so He could deliver me, something I had endlessly been praying for and believed in.
I did eventually move, on my own terms, and the new owners turned out to have a terribly loud dog you could hear six blocks away. And a year later I heard they sold because they ‘outgrew the house’.
The furthest thing from my mind and nothing I could’ve planned.