Fight For Your Family

In my little eleven year relationship and seven year marriage I have learned that our adversary the devil truly comes to kill, steal, and destroy families. He hates Christian families. He has demons, imps, and familiar spirits assigned to try to divide and conqueror our families. He wants to tear us apart. He wants our children to be left unprotected and vulnerable to the repercussions of a broken home such as emotional and mental instability, insecurity issues, inability to trust, abandonment issues, depression, a sense of hopelessness and so much more.

“Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A town or family splintered by feuding will fall apart.” Matthew 12:25

His plan is simple. Divide and conqueror! These demonic influences will do anything to try to get us to come against one another. They know that if the husband and wife are on one accord standing on the Word of God and in constant prayer that the forces of hell do not stand a chance. So they will try to wreck havoc in our lives with their cunning little schemes that are subtle. They set traps for us that will cause a destructive ripple affect in our lives.

Maybe they will start by trying to get us coveting, to self indulge, and over spend so that our families will end up stressed out about paying off debt and blaming one another for the financial crisis. Then will come the thoughts of drugs or alcohol to help cope with the problems and stress instead of praying and drawing close to the Lord for help. Often times by this point anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, and pride have crept in from all the harsh, critical, and unloving words. Now our hearts are hardened towards our spouse so that we do not even want to speak any more. Communication is broken or distorted. We hear what we want to hear and it is never good. Now the stage is set for feelings of abandonment and loneliness to fester in our hearts so that the demons can send someone to tempt us into having an adulterous relationship. There it is your way of escape. The demons will surely promote the scripture Matthew 5:41 about being able to get a divorce on the grounds of adultery. Then off to divorce court you go. Family left in ruins. This can be anyone of us if we let our guard down.

1 Peter 5:8 (Amplified Bible)

Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour.

Brothers and sisters there is a spiritual battle going on. It bugs me a little when I hear people say, “Don’t give the devil too much credit”. I don’t think that we need to make light of his craftiness. Peter warns us to be vigilant and cautious AT ALL times because the devil is roaming around like a lion roaring seeking someone to seize upon and devour. It sounds to me like we need to be on guard ready to fight the demonic powers in our lives. We need to be ready to stand strong in the Lord and in the power of His might with our armor on from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. We need to use discernment and stay prayed up all the time so that we can stand firm against all the strategies of the devil. (Ephesians 6:10-20)

We have to remember that we are in a spiritual battle against unseen forces of darkness. It is time to stand up and start fighting for our families, instead of fighting against the family. Too many times we forget who the battle is really against and we start allowing life’s situations and circumstances to overburden us to the point where we are nagging and fighting with the ones that are closest to us, our husband, wife, and children. We need to STOP IT! We need to open our eyes and see things from a spiritual perspective not from a fleshly or emotional point of view. We must remember the promise of God that He has a plan and purpose for us, but not just for us for our family. If each member of the family assumes their God ordained positions and stands up against the forces of evil in this world with the Sword of Truth then no weapon formed against the Christian family will prosper.

It’s NOT going to be easy. I know this for a fact because my marriage has not been easy. We have had many trials and battles, but we have overcome each one through faith in Christ Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our toughest times have been when we have turned our eyes away from the Word. The Lord gave us strength not to give up on our family, but we had to choose daily to keep our eyes on Him no matter what. We had to choose to forgive over and over and over again. My husband and I have determined to fight for our family, for our marriage, and for each other because we know that God has a plan for our entire family. So we have learned and are still learning daily to be long suffering and to trust God to continue the good work He has started in each of us.

I want to encourage you to fight for your family too. Your labor of love will not be in vain and your sacrifice will be honored.