Today is a Smiths and 12 ounces of tea type of day. You know, the day where you just feel like you want to crawl in bed and hibernate for the rest of your life. That type of day where you snuggle into your covers and sweatshirt with a large mug of tea, listen to "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" by The Smiths and wallow in your misery, because life hasn't been all that great this past week. It's a cuddle with your teddy bear type of day, at least it is for me. It hasn't been the best of weeks that I've ever had.
As the end of this week comes around, I'm pretty sure it has been the worst week of my entire life. Every single day starting from last Sunday to this Sunday has housed something incredibly bad in it. Never in my entire life have so many uncontrollably bad things happened in one solid week. I'm pretty sure I've broken a record with all time badness in a seven day span! Last Sunday I found out a crazy piece of information about a close friend; Monday I had a huge fight with my little brother; Tuesday I had one of the biggest fights I've ever had with my best friend; Wednesday I got so sick I was up all night leaning over the toilet, waiting - and praying - for Jesus to take me home before I threw up my guts; Thursday I was sick with a swollen belly and the feeling of needing to puke every couple minutes; Friday I nearly passed out at work from exhaustion and still had a swollen tummy; Saturday I found out my email to my professor about my midterm didn't send; today (Sunday once again) I found out I might not even get a chance at my midterm, because I still haven't heard anything back from my teacher. And to top it all off, Mother Nature decided to deliver her little package of horror to me last Sunday evening.
Do you ever have weeks like that? Weeks where everything just seems to be going wrong and bad? Weeks where the world definitely feels like it's crumbling down around you? Weeks where practically nothing can seem to be remotely normal or proper or right? Good to know, because I am here to tell you that you are not alone, not even in the slightest. If you had a week like I did, then I have got something mighty important to tell you. While you may think that God is trying to lay burdens upon you, do not be fooled by evil! You are under the attack of the devil, and he is clawing at your insides and threatening to break your happy-Jesus streak. And if you are under attack, congratulations, because it means you did something to make satan angry; it means you did something godly, something for the Kingdom.
I will tell you right now that if you had asked me in the beginning of the week if I felt like I was under attack and just needed to stand strong, I would've told you "yes". On Sunday evening and even on Monday I was feeling pretty fearless; I could face the world and take it by the horns. Now if you had asked me if I was under attack in the middle of the week on Tuesday or Wednesday, I would've told you that God was trying to challenge me or make me suffer. If you asked me Friday or Saturday I would've told you the same thing, along with pouting and wandering around like a kicked puppy because of the doubt of God in my mind. If you asked me this morning, about a couple hours ago, I would've told you that there was no way in all this earth that I could be fearless and that something was obviously wrong. If you asked me now, I'd finally tell you a real, desirable answer. I'd tell you "Yes, I am under attack. I've no idea why I've made satan so angry, but I sure hope I ruined his week too! I do not feel fearless, but my God is fearless, and He can carry me through hard times.".
If you are at the beginning of the week and something bad is happening, don't let yourself get too cocky in the beginning of the week like I did, feeling far too fearless for sense. If you are in the middle of the week, don't allow yourself to wallow in your misery like I did. If you are at the end of the week, don't sit and have a pity party like I so wrongly did. Hold your chin up! Chase out satan! Shout out loud "NO" at him, because he can't take you away and he won't pull you down to his level. Things may seem like they are falling down around you, and sometimes there will be hard weeks, months, and even years, but it's because you are destined for greatness and have seriously enraged satan. If things seem like they aren't going the way you think they should, don't worry, because God has something planned for you that is even better than you thought, and definitely better than the time of hardship you are going through. A quote I once saw said, "All great changes are preceded by chaos." You know what that means? It means that all the great things God has planned for you...all the great things you are going to do in His Glory will follow out and will happen, but only after the storm rages. So let the storm rage, but do not let satan drown you in the rain. Instead, dance through the thunder and lightning and pounding rain and hold your head up high in the battle, because making satan angry means you are making God joyful - joyful!
I can't tell you if I'm nearing the end of my raging storm or not, or if satan's attack is going to subside right now or in three weeks from now. I can't really say even if this is the hardest part of the storm or the calmest. I wish that I knew the answers, because I don't know when you will have a storm or when it will end or how long it will go for. But I can tell you that if you are tired - if you are exhausted - if you are falling to your knees in fatigue - if you are having difficulty dancing through the storm, Jesus has provided us with a simple answer. It says:
"Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28
Did you just read those words properly? It says "Come to me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest." If we come to Him during this time of hardship and attack, then He will give us glorious, protected, sweet rest. I can't even begin to explain how perfect that rest sounds, and how all I need to do to get it is go to Jesus. I believe that during my week of insanity I pulled away from God a little bit, lowering my shield, and in doing so I was leapt upon by the enemy. It's been a tough, long week but as it ends, I can't help but notice my strength replenishing little by little. I feel as if I am standing to my feet and bracing myself for the battle to throw itself at me, because God is on my side and He is my Protector.
There will be days when the world seems to be crumpling before your eyes, and days where you do fight with your best friend or get sick or don't get a good grade, and those are days where satan is trying to get at you because he knows you are going to do something great one of these days. I say to you now, you can rise above these difficult times, and not with great Smiths music or 12 ounces of tea (although that is wonderful), but instead with worship music, the Word and the Lord. In the beautiful words of Colton Dixon, "When your heart is cold and you feel you're letting go, you can rise above the world. You can rise above the world, tonight."
So rise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dyO2ph1vaA
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