Every bit of noise was received like nails on a chalkboard.<\/p>\n
Every whine from a child bought me that much closer to the edge.<\/p>\n
Pregnancy and exhaustion have left me vulnerable to attack.\u00a0 My defenses have been weakened.\u00a0 And for a moment, instead of recognizing the situation for what it was, I succumbed and accepted the lie that I just can\u2019t.\u00a0 I was ready to give in, have a tantrum, pout and whine.\u00a0 Seems like it didn\u2019t even cross my mind to pray.<\/p>\n
So I sent a prayer request to a friend; a friend who I don\u2019t normally reach out to with such requests, a friend with whom I don\u2019t normally disclose my personal battles.\u00a0 But this day, I was prompted to reach out to this<\/span> friend.\u00a0 I\u2019m so glad I did.<\/p>\n Her pray immediately redirected my focus.\u00a0 Her words had me stand erect, at attention.<\/p>\n After her reply, I was taken aback by my initial response to the pressure. How did I not turn to prayer as my 1st<\/sup> defense?\u00a0 Had I forgotten to pray when I feel defeated and ready to give up? Thank God for my friend\u2019s power packed prayer as it redirected my focus and I could regain enough footing to stand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Ephesians 6:11<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n And while standing, I prayed, \u201cOh Lord, Deliver me from the evil one. Oh Lord, that you would keep me from evil.\u00a0 Lord allow me to stand my ground as he tries to approach. Let me not rest in my own ability to defeat sin and temptation, but let me be reminded that it is with your authority and through your power that I can stand against the wiles of the enemy. Lord keep me safe from the temptations that can so easily ensnare.\u00a0 Open my eyes to see my vulnerabilities and weaknesses.\u00a0 Lord be the compound that fills the cracks and crevices. You are the chief cornerstone, my strong tower, my defense.\u201d<\/p>\n So I walked into the next day, renewed. I walked in confident that the Lord would keep the evil one from me. [bctt tweet=”When we declare the truth of God\u2019s word, we are given an IMMEDIATE opportunity to put it into practice.” username=”inspiredfully”]<\/p>\n Indeed the Lord is faithful to keep the evil one from us, but are we positioning ourselves to stay out of the evil one\u2019s way?\u00a0 When the Lord CLEARLY allows us to SEE the fowler\u2019s snare, will we circumvent it or step right into it?<\/p>\n Well my day that started confident and strong got fractured.\u00a0 First, I drove my truck into an under ground parking garage, only to remember after hearing this terrible scraping that I had my luggage rack on the top.\u00a0 I proceeded to slowly exit the garage but the damage was already done.\u00a0 The top was contorted and near ripped off.\u00a0 Now I was late for picking my daughter up from a test.\u00a0 As I was trying to figure out how to rectify the damaged rack, she was texting and calling.\u00a0 And she, being a bit of a worrywart began to get anxious.\u00a0 I told her what was going on and that I\u2019d be right there.\u00a0 She then proceeds to call and tell my husband about the luggage rack.<\/p>\n Great, let\u2019s complicate it even more.<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t get the container to close and surely we couldn\u2019t drive back on the highway with it flopping in the wind.\u00a0 It had to be removed.\u00a0 So get the picture: a VERY pregnant me, 2 weeks from due date, standing precariously on the running board, hanging onto the top railings trying to unscrew this huge rack\u2026.Ummm, yeah.<\/p>\n By God\u2019s grace we successfully get the rack off.\u00a0 People walking in the parking lot gave us curious glances.\u00a0 But now, where oh where would we fit this monstrosity?\u00a0 This thing weighs 35 lbs., is nearly 4 feet long and 3 feet wide.\u00a0 The truck already has 6 occupants and a teeny tiny trunk\u2026.You get the picture. I was tempted to leave it right there in that parking lot.\u00a0 After much maneuvering and seat changes, we were able to j-u-s-t fit it into the car.\u00a0 Well on that ride home, the rack was blocking my rear view, and my gas light was on.\u00a0 Would I step into the snare?\u00a0 I precariously teetered by it, but God reassured me to maintain my composure and to praise Him.<\/p>\n As I was driving on the highway, I saw something black fly off my car?\u00a0 What was that?\u00a0 Did it really come off my car?\u00a0 Was that a piece of the rack? Hey where\u2019s my husband\u2019s phone?\u00a0 I had it, now it\u2019s missing.\u00a0 I remember having it<\/p>\n when I climbed up to get the rack off.\u00a0 Did I? Did I leave it on the car?\u00a0 Needless to say, that was probably the phone as my husband went to the location\u00a0 on the highway\u00a0 a short time after and recovered the case but not the phone.<\/p>\n Seems like after all that, I was lost again and circling precipitously near the snare.\u00a0 My vision was blurry.\u00a0 I remembered the snare was somewhere in my vicinity.\u00a0 LORD I can\u2019t see, please don\u2019t let me step in the snare.<\/p>\n Feeling slightly defeated, but not completely without hope, I cried out to the Lord who is a very present help in times of trouble.\u00a0 Erica Campbell sings a song called HELP.\u00a0 And that was surely my cry.\u00a0 I stood, crying out, \u201cAbba, help. Keep me from the evil one. Abba, I\u2019m feeling weak. I don’t want to give up. Turn my \u2018I can\u2019t into an \u2018I Can.\u201d<\/p>\n Friend, have you ever had days where you just feel like \u201cI can\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n His grace will empower you.\u00a0 And He will keep His hand upon you and keep you from the evil one.<\/p>\n Don’t be discouraged.<\/p>\n Don’t be dismayed.<\/p>\n God is a very present help and He says, \u201cYes, you can!\u201d<\/p>\n Pray for me as I\u2019m praying for you.<\/p>\n As always it is my prayer that you\u2019ve been Inspired To Live Fully<\/em>!<\/p>\n Happy to connect with these friends sharing the Good News Mommy Moment<\/a>s, #LifeGivingLinkup<\/a>, Purposeful Faith<\/a>, Grace & Truth<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I can\u2019t adult today. I simply can\u2019t. Every bit of noise was received like nails on a chalkboard. Every whine from a child bought me that much closer to the edge. Pregnancy and exhaustion have left me vulnerable to attack.\u00a0 My defenses have been weakened.\u00a0 And for a moment, instead of recognizing the situation for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,14],"tags":[714,717,716,106,473,715,431],"class_list":["post-4505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-life","category-spiritual-life","tag-doubt","tag-escape","tag-exhaustion","tag-faith","tag-prayer","tag-pressure","tag-protection"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspiredtolivefully.com\/staging\/4119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspiredtolivefully.com\/staging\/4119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspiredtolivefully.com\/staging\/4119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspiredtolivefully.com\/staging\/4119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspiredtolivefully.com\/staging\/4119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4505"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspiredtolivefully.com\/staging\/4119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4507,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspiredtolivefully.com\/staging\/4119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4505\/revisions\/4507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspiredtolivefully.com\/staging\/4119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspiredtolivefully.com\/staging\/4119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspiredtolivefully.com\/staging\/4119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspiredtolivefully.com\/staging\/4119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}IN<\/h4>\n
MY<\/h4>\n
HAND<\/h4>\n
Well God says YES YOU CAN!<\/h3>\n