{"id":11130,"date":"2013-04-15T00:01:20","date_gmt":"2013-04-15T04:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=11130"},"modified":"2013-04-14T22:13:14","modified_gmt":"2013-04-15T02:13:14","slug":"girls-with-swords-chapter-4-the-battleground-pgs-53-55","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/04\/15\/girls-with-swords-chapter-4-the-battleground-pgs-53-55\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls With Swords: Chapter 4 &#8211; &#8220;The Battleground&#8221; (pgs 53-55)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>This week&#8217;s reading assignment can be found <em><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/bible-studies-schedule-2\/\">HERE<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is the second time I am writing this blog. I feel so strongly about the topic. I want it to be \u201cjust right\u201d. I want you to know my heart. I want you to truly hear and understand what God has been speaking to me lately. His voice has been so strong.<\/p>\n<p>In a sense, I feel like this is the most important piece of writing I have ever done. But, it is not a happy piece. It is not writing that will make you feel all good and happy inside. It might make you mad. Your heart may be convicted. I hope it is. I pray that the Lord will speak to each one of you in such a powerful way that your life will change today; that you will begin to see our world with fresh eyes. God needs his daughters to rise up and fight! He needs us to wield His Sword (the Word) against the enemy.<\/p>\n<p>But who is this enemy? It may seem like an easy answer. Satan, right? If the answer were that simple, my blog would end here. But, girlfriends, the answer is more complex than that.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, ultimately the fight is against Satan.<\/p>\n<p><strong>But, oftentimes we spend our time and energy fighting <em>each other<\/em><\/strong>. Christians fight non-Christians; Christians fight other Christians. People just love to fight something (or some<em>one<\/em>); and Satan sits back and laughs because when he can cause division and strife in our ranks, he wins. When Christ-followers do not act like they are truly saved by the blood of Christ, he wins.<\/p>\n<p>Our war is not with any political party, alternative lifestyle, social issue, or any other worldly circumstance. It is all a distraction to take our eyes and ears off of our real enemy. <strong>Our war is with Satan<\/strong>. We must recognize when he is trying to divide us, to put negative, non-constructive thoughts or feelings into our mind. When Satan stirs up negative thoughts or behaviors between you and anyone else, be it your family member or friend, your pastor, or even the President of the United States, it is to his benefit. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>We cannot have a negative spirit toward <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">anyone<\/span> and be right with God<\/strong><\/span>. Satan seeks to destroy us. He wants to steal our joy and our peace. His goal is to separate us from God. When we allow him access, to gain a foothold into these areas of our life where we have strong opinions or hurts, he wins.<\/p>\n<p>Sisters, <strong>we are eternally secure in Jesus Christ<\/strong>. We do not need to wage war on anyone here on earth. Our only battle is with the devil and the schemes he is trying to unleash every single day. We are at a critical point where we must, at all times, take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=2+Corinthians+10%3A5&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\">2 Corinthians 10:5<\/a>). Is the argument you are about to wage with your friend on Facebook going to be pleasing to Christ? If He were sitting with you at your computer right now, would you type that comment on a blog or write a particular status update?<\/p>\n<p>You may think I\u2019m being harsh or critical, but it is a reality. Unbelievers are watching the Christian. They are looking to see if Christ is real. They are trying to see if we live our lives any differently than they live theirs. If they looked at your e-mail inbox or your Facebook wall, or your text messages, what would they see? I know we are far from perfect, but our goal every single day is to do our very best to honor our God with our words, thoughts, and actions.<\/p>\n<p>Our current world is broken. We all know that. It is difficult to go through each day and not hear about another tragedy somewhere in the world. It is heartbreaking. But, the answer is not to lash out in anger. We must model our leader, Jesus Christ, who tells us love our neighbor as ourselves (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=mark%2012:31&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\">Mark 12:31<\/a>); to love our enemies (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=matthew%205:44&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew 5:44<\/a>); and to pray for those who persecute us (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=matthew%205:44&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew 5:44<\/a>). This, girlfriends, is the answer to how we defeat the enemy.<\/p>\n<p>I want to leave you with some scriptures to meditate on today. Please take some time to pray through this and let the Spirit work in your heart; journal it out. What is God saying to you?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).<\/p>\n<p>Do all things without complaining or bickering with each other, so you will be found innocent and blameless; you are God\u2019s children called to live without a single stain on your reputations among this perverted and crooked generation. Shine like stars across the land (Philippians 2:14-15).<\/p>\n<p>If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And since God is pretty cool, He even put a song in my path several times during the writing of this blog. I feel like I need to share the lyrics with you because they are so powerful (emphasis mine).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sidewalk Prophets - &quot;Live Like That&quot;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GfosSggwQS0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Live Like That<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>by Sidewalk Prophets<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Sometimes I think<br \/>\nWhat will people say of me<br \/>\nWhen I&#8217;m only just a memory<br \/>\nWhen I&#8217;m home where my soul belongs<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Was I love<br \/>\nWhen no one else would show up<br \/>\nWas I Jesus to the least of those<br \/>\nWas my worship more than just a song<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I want to live like that<br \/>\nAnd give it all I have<br \/>\nSo that everything I say and do<br \/>\nPoints to You<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">If love is who I am<br \/>\nThen this is where I&#8217;ll stand<br \/>\nRecklessly abandoned<br \/>\nNever holding back<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I want to live like that<br \/>\nI want to live like that<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Am I proof<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>That You are who you say You are<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>That grace can really change a heart<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Do I live like Your love is true<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>People pass<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>And even if they don&#8217;t know my name<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Is there evidence that I&#8217;ve been changed<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>When they see me, do they see You<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I want to live like that<br \/>\nAnd give it all I have<br \/>\nSo that everything I say and do<br \/>\nPoints to You<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">If love is who I am<br \/>\nThen this is where I&#8217;ll stand<br \/>\nRecklessly abandoned<br \/>\nNever holding back<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I want to live like that<br \/>\nI want to live like that<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I want to show the world the love You gave for me<br \/>\nI&#8217;m longing for the world to know the glory of the King<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I want to live like that<br \/>\nAnd give it all I have<br \/>\nSo that everything I say and do<br \/>\nPoints to You<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">If love is who I am<br \/>\nThen this is where I&#8217;ll stand<br \/>\nRecklessly abandoned<br \/>\nNever holding back<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I want to live like that<br \/>\nI want to live like that<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*****<\/p>\n<p><strong>Let\u2019s Pray:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Father God, we know You are a God of love and You desperately want your Bride to unite as one to fight the enemy where he seeks to divide us. Equip us each day as we go into battle. Write the truth of Your Word on our hearts and help us so that it takes root in our lives and bears much fruit for Your glory. In Your Son\u2019s matchless name, we pray. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week&#8217;s reading assignment can be found HERE This is the second time I am writing this blog. I feel so strongly about the topic. I want it to be \u201cjust right\u201d. I want you to know my heart. I want you to truly hear and understand what God has been speaking to me lately. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[2243,2248,2245,2244,425,1985,2246,550,555,1986,2250,2242,1865,2236,746,2247,1764,2249,1135],"class_list":["post-11130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-2-corinthians-105","tag-christian-unity","tag-defeat-the-enemy","tag-eternal-security","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-girls-with-swords","tag-hebrews-1214","tag-jennifer-mleczynski","tag-jesus-christ","tag-lisa-bevere","tag-live-like-that","tag-mark-1231","tag-matthew-544","tag-online-bible-stdies","tag-peace","tag-philippians-214-15","tag-romans-1218","tag-sidewalk-prophets","tag-womens-bible-studies","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/02.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-2Tw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11130"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11136,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11130\/revisions\/11136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}