Fight Oppression with Scripture!

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It was the strangest thing...

One moment I was waking up, rubbing my eyes and taking in the day.

Quickly realizing i had a KILLER headache.

Things went downhill from there.

Fast.

A distressing text from a precious friend.

A step on the scale.

A realization that my birthday is days away.

All of a sudden a great HEAVY oppression hit me between the eyes.

All I could see were the messes around the house and every sound was magnified 10,000x and echoing in my hollow, tired head.

Kids were hollering at each other.

Toby was crying.

(did i mention I only slept 5 hours?!)

I was suddenly in tears feeling like the entire world was smothering me.

How did I get here!??!

Wasn't I just a few moments ago sleeping peacefully, just right there??

Graciously, my older girls took the reigns and cared for the others downstairs.

I reheated a day old cup of coffee. (I really cannot believe I forgot to drink my coffee yesterday!)

I opened my Bible to where I had left off yesterday...Isaiah 50.

Verse 4 jumped out like a cat on a hot tin roof:

"Morning by morning He wakens me
and opens my understanding to His will."

And lo and behold, my journal had the verses from I Thessalonians 5:16-18 printed on the bottom page:

"Always be joyful.  Pray continually. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus."

Wow.

That's pretty stinkin' clear.

So I started by thanking God for what good was surrounding me. (You don't have to be told to be thankful when times are good, so that verse is WRITTEN for challenging moments!)

I spoke aloud all I was thankful for...

...and literally in a matter of moments, all that feeling of dark oppression had left.

In a matter of minutes my head cleared, I saw through the darkness and realized it was sunshining outside. "Hey, I have a life to go live!"

Peace had returned downstairs too.

I sit here now typing on the keypad realizing even my headache is gone.

What was that, anyway???

Spiritual attack.

I truly believe our whole family/house got smothered with it this morning. There was a moment when all my kids were screaming and one came up throwing my bedroom door open wide, "Mom! You've GOT to DO SOMETHING! Things are NOT GOING WELL!!!" I was currently in tears from my own attack.

Thing is, when you are under attack, you rarely recognize it. It's not like Satan comes to you and says, "prepare to be ATTACKED!"

(but gosh wouldn't that be nice?!)

Habits of being in the Word are good for so many, many reasons. I hope that today if you find yourself grumpy, overwhelmed, exhausted, hurting that you too will do a little I Thessalonians 5:16-18!