Trials? Yep, Trials!
Eric gave me a Prayer Journal for my birthday a few months ago and it has forced me to stop, take a breath, and truly focus on my prayer life. Each week the journal has a “Reflection” page where it asks questions surrounding a specific topic. This week’s topic was ‘Adversity & Trials’, and the journal asked me to think of a difficult time during my life. My first reaction was, “just one difficult time!?” God tells us we most definitely will face trials, and they will come, and they will go. Eric and I have faced trials individually before we were married and we have faced them as a couple in our marriage.
This “Reflection” page asked me if I felt God present during that trial. Well, when I think back to the different trials our marriage encountered, I will admit that I didn’t really feel God’s presence at first. I felt very alone. Very fearful. And honestly, quite hopeless. Every time our marriage encountered a struggle, there was one thing that I could most definitely see in the situation. That was Satan. We let Satan in. We let him into our home and into our marriage. We weren’t spending time with God the way we should. We were walking out the door in the morning and choosing to ignore God. This basically told God, “I don’t need you today. I can do this on my own”. We let Satan in by letting our pride take over. Satan doesn’t want you to worship him, he just wants you to NOT worship God. And that’s exactly what Eric and I did. Our problems began when we decided that we knew better. In hindsight, God was there the whole time. He never left us. God was there waiting for us to take that precious step toward Him. And when we did – OH BOY! Everything changed. We could clearly feel God’s presence and I could almost hear God saying, “Get behind thee Satan”.
Now, when life (sometimes that may come in the form of Satan) comes between us, we see the signs earlier and we act more quickly. I pray that we will never let Satan into our home or our marriage again, but when Satan tries….But God!