WHEN YOUR FAITH IN GOD IS UNDER AN ATTACK

The earliest memory of a painful experience that I had was when as a young teenager, my mum came home with a terrible news about a woman I knew so well. She was such an amazing woman. She visited us sometimes and when she traveled out of the country, we were sure to get nice stuff upon her return.

Mum announced that she had passed on.

What happened? How could a sweet woman like her leave the earth so quickly?

Apparently, her house had caught fire in the middle of the night. She had died with every member of her family except her first son. 

That story shook me but it would be the beginning of more pathetic stories that’d come. I would have to face fears and the temptations to question God’s Word. It has become very clear that when it comes to walking this journey called life, we will be constantly be confronted with a devil and his demonic forces whose mission is to steal, kill and destroy.

Imagine a lady experiencing a great life and one morning she wakes up feeling sick. She takes malaria drugs but the feeling of sickness doesn’t seem to go away. Instead, it gets intense. She visits the hospital and within few months is diagnosed of cancer. Her frequent trips to the hospital become worrisome to her boss who can’t see the need to pay a staff that hardly shows up at work. She is fired. Devastated, she spends long worrisome nights thinking about how to pay bills and dealing with questions like;

‘God, why? What did I do wrong to be inflicted with this affliction? I believe in Jesus and I have served him wholeheartedly. How could you pay me this way?’ 

I know that I have shared stories of what seem like the worst cases of an attack on our faith in God but truthfully, in different ways, we have been tempted to doubt the goodness of God and the promises in the Word. 

You lose a good job and now it’s really difficult getting another, someone dear to your heart dies after long hours of prayers and fasting for the restoration of their health; your mother-in-law is a torn in your flesh and it is having a toll on your marriage; you have invested so much in a business but now you are running in debt; after years of trusting God for a child, you give birth to a child with a down syndrome or with multiple heart problems; you have been waiting for a long time for a life partner, and now in your mid-forties, you are battling depression. Trust me, these are real issues. Here’s something I don’t want you to ever forget.

The devil is after your mind.

Let me repeat what I just said because it needs to sink in.

The devil is after your mind.

Actually the challenge you are facing is not the real issue, it’s primarily an avenue for the devil to distort the right perception about God in your mind. Yeah, if difficult situations can make you turn your back against God, then he would have succeeded.

Earlier this year, different things happened almost at the same time to my close friends. One got really sick, another was experiencing constant depressive thoughts, another dealt with grief and for me I was at that time trying to recover from the news of the deaths of three beloved in about two months. How hard can life get?

Can you remember the question the devil posed at Eve? He said, Has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Are you also seeing a pattern of this question in your thought process?

Does God really provide for our needs? 

Does God really heal? 

Can I ever find carry my child? 

Will my business ever prosper? 

One great weapon the devil uses is fear. Just like that, you get on social media to find negative experiences that affirm those thought processes. Images start to play in your head. Conversations roll in your head non-stop.

Here’s the beautiful thing. We are not without help. As these questions attack your mind, the wisest counterattack is to immediately impress God’s word on your mind whether you feel it or not. Catch that thought process as fast as possible because it becomes tougher to silence negativity when it has built a place of abode in your mind.

What do you then do when your faith is under attack? How can you stay trusting God when nothing seem to be working. How can you stay above the storms that hit you on all sides? Can I share a few tips? 

1. Identify the exact challenges you are facing and your present responses to them 

Here’s a good example. You don’t have a good job. The one you presently have can barely keep you afloat. You live in your parents’ home and depend on them in some way even though you are almost in your thirties. For some reason, you are in a lot of debt from a failed business attempt. There is a girl you really like but then, you wonder what to tell her considering your present financial state. Here you are feeling really downcast and running temperature. You are becoming feverish and afraid of many things at once.

You need to identify the issues and re-establish your convictions on God’s word. What does God say to you about fear? What are God’s promises about helping you out of difficulties. Why am I feeling this way?

Whatever is going on in your life, the first step is to take control of the thought processes going on in your head and press in the right knowledge. Will you learn to fix God permanently in your mind?

God is good to me.

Period.

Refrain from allowing your mind roam in an autopilot mode. Interact with the right knowledge- sound sermons, scriptures and christian literature that speak about the subject. One time, under an attack on my health, I played Andrew Wommack’s sermons all night. I couldn’t move my body, couldn’t pray or do anything. I woke up the next morning fine.

Take a step towards becoming a custodian of the flow happening in your mind. Be intentional about it. If it means shutting out every other thing and sitting for a while with the knowledge that fuels hope, please do. No one gets results through worrying and besides worrying is a sin.

Remember the words of Jesus:

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers-most of which are never even seen- don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax…

Matthew 6:30 (The Message)

2. Assess your devotion life.

Will you agree with me that sometimes, the issues some believers face arise from neglected devotional life? There are many cases that the Lord responds via spiritual signals that are ignored. There are some terrible messes that would have been avoided by discernment. I’m not saying this happens in all cases, but we can’t deny the fact that this can be a consideration.

How is your prayer life? Do you read the word? How deeply rooted are you in the understanding of fundamental teachings in God’s word? Do you belong to a sound local assembly? Can you measure your spiritual growth?

This might be the answer to that continuous battle you are facing.

3. Worship.

I have had days when I couldn’t explain what was going on with me. Times when praying was so difficult and reading the scriptures was a tug of war. Spirit-filled songs have always been pivotal to helping me pick up again. Many times, the Holy Spirit gives me the songs to listen to, and as I put the songs on repeat, I am re-energize to hold on to God’s word again. I hope you have a playlist of Christ-centered songs. I also hope that it is a practice to allow them play in your environment.

As you worship, have conversations with God. Share your fears with Him and ask for strength. If you can mutter more words, confess scriptures and if the only words you can get out for a while is, ‘God loves me.’ or ‘Lord, I trust you.’ that’s fine too. That reaffirmation is good for your mind. The Lord hears you.

4. Exercise your authority in Christ.

Have you ever been mad at the devil before? Terrible things are happening around you and you just weep quietly, sulking for days without addressing the enemy. I’m sure the angels are confused sometimes about the reaction of some believers. They will just be looking at you as you whine and chew that toasted bread and hot dogs while you laugh at that funny tick-tok video.

I don’t quite get it. How are you under an attack and all you do is complain and whine about your situation. What happens to going on a fast, getting into a prayer stretch, shutting out the noise, making back-to-back declarations on the word, listening to the Lord for instructions, closing the knowledge gaps by meditating on the word and searching the scriptures.

What kind of world do you think we live in? In case you have forgotten, every day we step into a battlefield. A battle that we can win. Command your atmosphere and live with a consciousness that you carry God.

5 Create opportunities to reflect.

I’ll recommend creating times for personal retreats where you sit with your soul. There are challenges that can be covered by knowledge gaps- a certification you require, wisdom principles for business strategy, self-therapy sessions that correct wrong mental models, interaction with resources for deep emotional healing.

In Solitude which I call Sabbath, I have been able to quieten my mind and draw from the wisdom of the spirit and from intellectual knowledge that pulled me out of some difficult situations. As you quieten your heart and listen, you will know what to do. You’ve got the Holy Spirit, remember?

6. Don’t walk the journey alone. 

I sure hope you have friends you can call when the road is rough. I’m not talking about friends whose response will be ‘ehya, pele dear. It is well.’ I’m talking about friends who can stand in the place of prayers with you. Friends whose spiritual senses are sharp and with whom you can face the battles of life.

This journey was not designed for you to press through alone. Find the kingdom companions that can hold your hands and help your tired knees.

Let me end by saying this, you are never without help. God is good to you always and it doesn’t matter what you are facing right now, He is good and this blog post is His way of encouraging your heart.

Never forget; One of the devil’s biggest agenda in the life of a believer is to attack your faith in God. He is scared of you and so he tries hard to frustrate you. He tries to see if you really know the dominion you possess or if your trust in God will remain constant in the face of difficult situations.

Jesus never promised us a life void of trials. He said in this world we will have tribulations but be of good cheer, we have overcome the world. 

I’ll leave you with the words of David in Psalms 23:4 

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I’ll fear no evil for thou art with me, your rod and your staff, comforts me. 

God is for you. Victory is yours always through Him who died and gave Himself for you.