Take it Back
My world seemed so small when I was young.
Not just because I grew up with like six TV channels and no internet in a small town in Wisconsin but because all the drama and trauma kept me and my family secluded in our funk.
Our tiny little house in a small town symbolized our tiny but terrifying world.
Looking back, I can see how the enemy (yep, I'm talking about the jerk-face devil) kept us imprisoned in the tiny spaces of fear, worry, rejection, abandonment, anger, violence, and addiction.
Living that way brings hopeless isolation and solitude, and you feel like you live in the shadows as if no one sees you or even wants to.
And that's right where the devils want us, ya know - isolated, alone, hopeless, and vulnerable.
That nasty dude did everything he could to keep God's hope far from us and to block us from the great big world out there where love and redemption were available, dreams could come true, and anything was possible.
We did not know all of the power available to us to fight and enlarge our territory.
Well, let me tell you, those days are long dead and gone.
It’s time to take back what the enemy stole.
The winds of change have come, and there is no stopping us taking back what Jesus fought so hard for us to have.
We must be strong and do our best to fight and follow God's words to regain what the enemy has stolen.
God is the breaker of chains and the light in the darkness.
Jesus is the savior of the imprisoned and the hopeless.
The Holy Spirit is our wisdom against confusion and temptation.
Those are just a few of the attributes we have access to to take back what was taken from us.
I look at my children, and I pray that they never know the pain of living in the seclusion that sin brings. I pray that they feel unconditional love and know how they can access God's power and redemption in the territories they occupy in their wonderful lives.
I think of those I love and care for—family and friends—and pray that we rise out of our own funk and look out for one another so that no one is hiding in tiny, terrifying spaces.
We aren't just on this journey for ourselves.
To regain the territory taken from us, we must look around, pull each other up and out, and give an outpouring of God's love, grace, and mercy that will overtake whatever that jerk-face devil is scheming.
Look at your own life and those you love and care for.
What do you need to counteract to take back what the enemy stole?
We must fight together and follow God.
The time is now, my friends.
The time is now.
Ephesians 6:12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Psalm 91 14-16
"Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation."
Romans 8: 38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.