The spiritual side...

One of the things about being back in easy North American society is that I forget the spiritual undercurrents of everything. Any decision I make, any action I take...they all have some spiritual aspect to them. I've been thinking about this recently because the youth have been on my heart, and because I know they face difficult decisions everyday that DO have spiritual ramifications, whether they know it or not.

A quote I read in someone's testimony really stayed with me. He said, "Although I am now fulfilled in having assurance of everlasting life, I regret giving the best years of my life to Satan. I regret embracing sin and insecurity. Though it might be fashionable to say 'I do not regret anything because I am who I am because of my past mistakes,' I would disagree. I believe Jesus Christ was sufficient to save me. My unwholesome experiences contributed only to the problem, not the solution. If only I had enough humility to listen to the 'great cloud of witnesses' earlier in life."

I forget that as much as God wants us to succeed, Satan wants us to fail. BUT, knowing I have power through His Holy Spirit to resist Satan's evil is reassuring.

"Satan knows full well that God wants to present His Son with a pure, spotless, virgin bride, so he's doing everything he can to defile her. What he doesn't seem to 'get' is that he cannot touch or taint the Spirit of Christ in us, which is what ultimately gives us our pure standing before God."
- Beth Moore, When Godly People Do Ungodly Things

Fight the good fight, brothers and sisters!