When faced with tumultuous times, we often stew, our focus scattered, and that leaves us feeling overwhelmed. We start thinking, “I am one person. What can I do?” We talk to ourselves like this until we are overwhelmed with the enormity of the challenges and we feel less and less powerful to do anything. Feelings of inadequacy abound, and a sense of helplessness that, if we continue on this path, leads to hopelessness, and so we do nothing because we don’t have a clear vision of anything we can do that will make a difference.

We’ve all been in this dark and heavy place and none of us like it. The thing is, we are not helpless nor are we hopeless. In truth, we are powerful beyond measure. Why?

Because we never stand alone. The creator stands with us. He promised to be with us always, and He is, which means we are never reliant only on ourselves and our own skills, assets, and abilities, but on our own and His!

If we stay our eyes on Him and follow His lead, He will make ways where there are none. He will walk before us, create a path to a place that we can follow.

The challenge for us is in looking at something and seeing this huge and overwhelming big picture. When we see it, we start with the negativity because it seems so big and we feel so small. This isn’t by mistake, it’s by design, and that design can be benevolent or malevolent.

If it is from God, then it is to remind us to stay our eyes on Him and rely on Him.

If it is from the enemy, it is to intimidate and frighten us into those dark places so we do nothing.

Spiritual warfare is fought in such ways. There’s an old saying that the devil’s greatest deception was in convincing people he didn’t exist. If you are being attacked, it isn’t because you’re weak. It’s because you are powerful and have the needed skills and abilities to make significant change for the better for yourself, your family, and for others. You must be stopped!

Only you can choose to stop, or to press onward and upward. Only you, exercising your free will, can decide if you will walk in the light or sink into the darkness. In making this choice, you advance spiritually or digress spiritually.

Choosing goodness and light, you choose God. And the very moment you do, God will act. Opening doors, spurring ideas to aid and assist, lighting the path. It won’t always be easy; nothing worthwhile ever is, but He is with you, taking every step with you without fail.

It’s important to understand the importance of free will in this process. God gave us free will. We make our choices and create our reality as a result of those choices. He didn’t gift us with partial free will–only when our choices aligned with His will. No, He gifted us with total free will. So even when we make less than wise choices, we bear the consequences of them so we learn that bad choices have consequences, these specific consequences, and we make fewer unwise choices and more wise ones.

God wants us to rely on Him, to stay our eyes on Him. But He won’t force us. We make the free will choice, and He rejoices by staying at our side, aiding and assisting us all the way.

We learn to trust His ways as best. Heed His warnings. Embrace His nudges.

When we do this, regardless of what happens, we are at peace with it because we know we have walked the path we were destined to walk. There’s enormous peace and power in that.

Along the way, we learn to discern. We know His voice. His ways. His peace. It gets harder and harder for the enemy to attack because we know to hit our knees first, not as a last resort. That spares us a lot of difficulties, and makes us really tough targets to be attacked.

How we can best serve becomes more clear with time, but a great beginning is always in prayer. Not just for yourself. But for others. The Bible tells us to love one another and to seek wise counsel in times of uncertainty. Who is more wise than God?

We best serve by helping others, and there is no greater help to be offered than to pray, seeking the wisest counsel from the wisest counselor.

Blessings, and Happy Valentine’s Day!