Monday, August 11, 2008

Do you have a Battle Plan?

I am an awesome fretter. I'm not even kidding. I will stress about the littlest and dumbest things ever. This is where Satan gets me. So let me tell you what happened recently...
I had an awesome time this week at SLIC (its a spiritual renewal conference). I was truly blessed by the speakers and I felt like the Lord really spoke to me and through me. It was great! Like a lot of conferences I came back on a bit of a high, which was to be diminished quite quickly. I walked in my house and started looking for the keys to my room (attached to my wallet with complete with credit card and ID), but they were no where to be found. I dumped my entire back on the living room floor but still, nothing. So what do I do? I panic. Due to the awesome week I had, it was on my mind to pray, so I did. And then I called the place we stayed to see if they had it and they didn't. So they I freaked out.
After that was over, I called my friend who has the master keys. While I was walking over to her house to get the key to my room, I prayed and told God that whether I found the keys or not, I would still give him praise because I knew he was good. I swear, those words barely crossed my lips when it down poured. I was completely soaked and I just laughed and thought to myself 'Really?' as I stepped in a big mud puddle.

I got the keys to my house, came back and realized they were the WRONG keys. So I had to go BACK to my friend's house and get more keys. About this time I was on the verge of tears... so I cried and fretted and walked back in hopes of finding the right key. As I trudged back to my house, it suddenly hit me: SATAN was trying to LIE to me and DECEIVE me into believing that somehow God wasn't good and that somehow he was just trying to make my life miserable (like I said, I fret and make a big deal out of the dumbest thing!)
In that moment, I remembered something I had written a good 8 months before... "When being lied to by Satan there are a couple things you have to do":
1. Say out loud, THIS IS A LIE!
2. State the TRUTH.
3. Remind yourself of how God has been faithful in the past.
4. Remember the truth of God's Word and how he promises to be faithful in the future.

I know I sound like a self help book, but THIS really works for me (it might now work for you, but YOU have to come up with your own battle plan). So I said these things, felt better and then got a phone call from my roommate telling me that the hotel found my wallet and my keys with everything in it and they were going to bring it to me in an hour.
You see, I'm a great fretter, but I've realized that the Lord is not only bigger than my problems, he's bigger than my fretting, which is really impressive. So next time you begin to fret, pull out your battle plan... feel free to use mine until you get one of your own ;)

1 comment:

Christy Hughes said...

Omgsh, Jamie...this was so perfect for me to read today because Satan has definitely been putting lies in my head and in situations recently. I say this especially recently because this is around the time everyone is leaving for college and a lot of emotions are going around and a lot of people taking things the wrong way including myself. haha. So thanks again for the encouraging word. God is good! haha and I hope you're doing well :), i miss you!

-Christy H. :)