Spiritual Battle and Hope

I know most of us do not take spiritual battle seriously. We are aware of it, as Christians, yet we do not see its affects immediately. Last night in a community group of women we were discussing, The Final Quest, an amazing book about all the different realms of spirituality. One of the key points I took from our discussion was, "a single demon of bitterness could affect a sea of people". I wish we could see the affect of our words and our actions, but most of the time we are blind. Only God sees the good and the harm of everything, so we must ask God to judge us inwardly, not others, and definitely not ourselves.

Lately, I've been talking to my closest friends and family and a reoccurring theme surfaces: infidelity. I wish I wasn't exaggerating, but marriages are constantly failing and we blame it on so many different things. We all have opinions on why people do it, or why they shouldn't do it. Obviously, it is not okay, but it is a common issue in my generation- that several of my friends, including myself had to suffer through or are still suffering from a broken marriage and a lack of support from one parent or both their parents.

I know that this is not true for everyone- Praise God! Even more, this doesn't have to be true for the future. It is really easy to lose hope in marriage(too many have), but I have absolute hope in the men and women that the Lord is shaping. We cannot accept the attitude against marriage, because that means we have lost hope in ourselves, in each other, and mostly in God as a deliverer.  He will deliver. 

I find it interesting and extremely encouraging that "The Last Lecture"(if you haven't checked this out, you must youtube it immediately!) has become the big deal that is has because it shows us all the gift of life. It's a gift. It's not a burden, it's not tedious. It's crazy, sure. It's much better than what I have for myself. My friend, Helen, said something like this, "I'm realizing that in relationships, both parties should give, and I never knew that before because I always took the giver role. Then, I realized that God creates everything to depend on each other, it's not one-sided. The trees, the air, the flowers, everything, it's all there for each other, they all give and take."