Longsuffering sets us up for victory in enemy occupied territory! EL

Wednesdays Word

When Faith Meets Suffering-Part 15
Welcome back to When Faith Meets Suffering with Trench Classes United and Kim-Evinda. We understand that social media is sort of like that “in love” stage of a relationship, the “happier” side of life. For many, it’s a sort of pretend world. While we get that trouble and tears don’t make for a good blog, we pray that as she walks through this season transparently, you will be encouraged when you walk through a difficult time of any measure, remembering who walks with you. Let’s get back to the story.

She read her notes from Sunday’s message. They soothed her wounded soul, inspired and encouragedher at the same time. Jack Hibbs had invited a Navy Seal Warrior for freedom and a Warrior for Christ to share the message.
She rewound the memory; she had been thoroughly entrenched in his stories of battles won, and some lost. His message was from 2nd Kings 5:1-14, about Naaman, a valiant soldier with leprosy. He wove in his own war stories of triumphs and tragedies, reminding the congregation that the one who wars against us oftentimes is ourselves with our thoughts; that we need to infuse our faith into all enemy-occupied territory.
As he shared Naaman’s journey towards healing, which was full of adversity fueled by pride, she realized thather marriage was in desperate need of healing; that like Naaman, it was suffering from a form of leprosy. And while leprosy is a disease of the skin and nerves, causing devastating disabilities, it’s so very prevalenttoday and similar to a diseased marriage. There was so much shame in what was becoming more clear to her, an adulterous affair outside of marriage. And like leprosy, these types of marital infections cause devastation, disabilities and stigmas. This explained why all she wanted to do was isolate and drown in her sadness and embarrassment.
Like leprosy, suspicions of any marital difficulty, especially extra-marital affairs, can cut us off and hide us away from those who can help us.
All the unanswered questions, her desire to understandthe why, required that she pull a Naaman and drop her pride, allow God to peel back the layers buried in the years of unattended soil of their marital love and expose the roots that had choked out the Son, their first love, the foundation for their marriage.
There were propensities and tendencies that had prevented light from exposing truth in him; now, he was in a dark place.
She was left with so many questions after soaking her soul in the best medicine, the Word of God: stay or go? Will you be forged by adversity, or failed by adversity? Like the Soldier had quoted, adversity is not a singular event for we will always be affected by outside events that sometimes bring with them adversity of all kinds.
Her answer to each of the questions came swiftly: “You don’t need to trust him right now; you just need to trust ME with all your mind and all your soul.”
Friend, are you in the midst of a battle, an adversity? May I encourage you to infuse your God-faith into all temporal things, into all enemy-occupied territory!
Love,
Kim-Evinda