1 Peter 5:8-9(NLT)
“8 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 9 Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.”
Purpose is defined as the reason for which something is created and exists. As God’s children, it is incredibly important that we understand that we have a purpose in His Will and plan. We have a reason for existing and this must be anchored in our minds and hearts continually. Our Heavenly Father is a God of purpose, and He created us to be people that are about fulfilling His purpose. This is the greatest and most fulfilling accomplishment that we could ever hope to achieve. As we become spiritually mature and we begin to pursue God’s purpose for our lives, we must have a strong foundation of faith. We have an enemy, the devil, and he doesn’t want us to have this foundation and to fulfill our purpose, because he knows that when we do, we will continually increase in the Lord’s strength and power.
To have a strong foundation of faith, we must be rooted and grounded in God’s Word and have the inward witness of God’s Holy Spirit. Our motivation continually should be to please God and to be anchored to the Rock of Our Salvation, Jesus Christ. However, sometimes our own agendas get in the way. Many of us single women are yearning to get married. We want to meet the man that God has ordained to walk with us through life, but sometimes our desire gets out of hand. We begin to desire marriage more than we desire a strong relationship with our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ. When this happens, the enemy will distract and trick us so that we move further away from the blessed existence that God wants us to have.
One of the ways that satan tricks us is by distracting us from 2Corinthians 5:17(ESV) which tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Salvation is a free gift from God to anyone that will accept it and begin to live for Christ. It is being born of God’s Spirit and becoming one with God. Through the new birth, we become new creations in Jesus Christ, and our old lives without him are passed away. In other words, we are made brand new in Christ! We are tricked by satan because some of us do not wholeheartedly trust our newness in our Redeemer and Savior. We still cling to many of our old ways, and this keeps us separated from God’s blessings and rewards.
The Holy Spirit empowers us to pursue God’s purpose and live a successful Christian life, and we can live with power in every area of our lives through him. This is foundational to our faith, but a lot of us try to put the cart before the wheel, so to speak. Jesus Christ tells us in John 10:10 that the devil is in the world to steal, kill, and destroy, but we often ignore this truth. We want the blessing of marriage, but our foundation is not strong enough in Christ to handle the blessing we seek. Our faith is not as firm as it needs to be, so every time we get close to our desire, the enemy finds a way to steal it from us.
We can’t follow our natural instincts about dating and marriage and think this will lead us to success. When we do this, we leave ourselves wide open to enemy attack. We must follow the Spirit! Our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is key. The closer we get to him by following his example, reading and studying God’s Word, and praying often, the more we will fulfill our purpose in God’s Will and plan. When this is our commitment and practice, the blessing we hold so dear in our hearts will manifest.■
English Standard Version (ESV), The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“We Have an Enemy”, written by Kim Times, edited by Fran Mack and K. Stephens for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!