To Really Give the Devil a Good Fight

Hello blog readers! I hope and pray that God is giving you endurance to get through the last few months of winter. We have been keeping busy with our retreat schedule which helps us forget about the weather…for the most part. This past weekend we experienced spiritual warfare on our retreat. Satan tried to trip us up through certain incidences such as losing car keys, waking up late, and ultimately discouragement. Luckily, we were able to pinpoint that this was happening to us in order to not let it get to us. To quote some lyrics from Danielle Rose’s song, “The Saint That Is Just Me,” it was somewhat a compliment that we were getting attacked because we were, “to really give the devil a good fight.” There was quite the happy ending to this retreat; even if we didn’t see the results we trust that God used us to better His kingdom. One of my favorite books of all time is “The Screwtape Letters,” by C.S. Lewis. If you have not read it, go pick up a copy NOW! It has great insight on spiritual warfare and the tactics that Satan uses to get to us. I knew that going into SPIRITUS not everything would be easy. There would be trials or things that would prevent us from our work, whether division between teammates or anxiety about sharing our stories with the youth. Despite these things, we are beyond blessed that God has already won this battle. He helps us stay focused on what is important, for instance God really opened my eyes on a retreat to why the mission of SPIRITUS is vital. We had time for the students to ask us questions in a panel format. One question that shocked me was, “Is the youth worth it?” My initial response was, “YES!” It hurt to know that some of these youth feel unworthy or that they think we are wasting our time on them. Even if the students seem discouraged or completely closed off doesn’t mean God is not working on their hearts. Even if one student experiences God’s love, it is worth it! Their heart is worth it! Their soul is worth it! “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 8:38-39