You fall down, you get back up again..

This past week was a giant F-A-I-L! Wow, I didn't even see it coming...Except that the header on my devotional Monday am read "Preparing for the Attack." Holy cow...not a coincidence! lol

     It went on to talk about how there's a lot of stress involved with starting a new venture by the sheer amount of work you have to put into it but there's also a lot of emotional and spiritual stress involved. "The closer you get to completion or lasting eternal impact, the more spiritual attacks you should expect." 

     It Highlights 4 kinds of attacks to watch out for.

~Physical setbacks: Satan loves to rob us of our effectiveness by unexpected illness or simply irritating physical problems, like a backache, or waking up with your eye swollen shut, falling down steps!!! etc...

~Technical setbacks: a computer problem, flooding in your basement, your car breaking down!! ( I'm getting mad just thinking about the issues that not only me but my friends have dealt with recently!!!)

~Preoccupation: being preoccupied will make you more likely to run out of gas, drop/lose your phone, forget to lock you doors etc...  It says that satan was an angel who got off track, so his favorite tool is getting us off track with him. I HATE this because it works for me so I need to find a way to gain AND KEEP my focus better!  

~Heaviness of heart: The devo says this one is the most common, and the hardest to pinpoint. It's an overwhelming heaviness that feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. a feeling of oppression that you don't understand. It could be a feeling that you're battling something evil or just having depression that you don't know where it came from. OR just a bunch if down days...whatever. 

"The first step out of the attack is to identify the irritation or setback as an attack."

  This all makes sense because I've been asked to step out of my comfort zone in leadership in a bunch of areas recently. As I've struggled with whether to do them or not, I keep coming back to my vow with God when I moved and this new church started, to be obedient with whatever was asked of me no matter how I felt about it. God has proven that He will use me as long as I'm willing to be the vessel time after time. So I really need to be prayed up and just keep pushing through I guess.

  So yeah, last week was a total bust but this morning I felt like God was saying I really need to lose the all or nothing mentality because even though I feel like it was a total fail, He's reminding me there were good moments and good decisions. I guess I need to focus on the good things, one moment/meal at a time and not the day or week as a whole.