Doug E. Pudge

One True Blessing

You know, I was thinking. One of the greatest blessings in my life has got to be serving on the prayer team. Without a doubt one of the things that I know that God has called me to do is to minister to people in prayer. There is something happening that is so personal and intimate during these times that only God really understands exactly what is happening. It is also an eye opening experience. I have come to the reality that there is a great battle going on right now over NewSong! A battle that can rock our loving and caring church to the core!
You see the enemy is way to clever for a frontal attack so he sneaks around to the side or back doors in order to deceive us. Right now without being specific here are some of the attacks that are going on:

Attacks on communication - there is something about the enemies ability to prevent us from talking to one another. Sometimes we believe it is better to address the issues with a third party rather than the person that we are having a struggle with! I cannot tell you the number of times over the past month that I have told people "you need to talk to...." It never ceases to amaze me how easy this one is to fall in to! I have even caught myself paricipating in this one lately.

Attacks on commitment - we have a tendancy to over commit sometimes! When we feel that we have dissappointed someone because we were unable to accomplish something that we said we would do we begin to pull away. Suddenly we find ourselves in a situation where we are not making any commitments and are just kind of hanging around! I believe that it is better to commit, fail and receive forgiveness then to not make any commitments at all. But, you should know your limitations and avoid committing to more than you can handle.

Attacks on relationships - this is a biggie that the enemy loves to use. I woke up Sunday morning feeling some stress on a relationship with a brother of mine. I hadn't even had my first cup of coffee yet and it was waiting there to hit me up side my head. I spent quite a bit of time in prayer on my way to church when I realized that the things that were bothering me weren't even important. So instead of confronting an issue that really didn't need confronting, intead of ignoring an issue that had me upset, and instead of allowing something to just eat at me all day, I decided to hand it over to the Father! He took all of those negative feelings that had no foundation and just exchanged them with more love for the brother that they were directed at! God just made them dissappear.

I could go on and on with various other examples that I have seen and experienced lately, but the bottom line here is to recognize the attack! Each of us have a duty to one another to love the way Jesus loves! Don't let the enemy get a foothold and don't allow anything to stand between you and the peace that God has for you! Be blessed beyond belief today.

posted by Doug E. Pudge @ 7:41 AM