Lesson from Jihadists

I always hesitate to post here. There are many more eloquent, more learned in the Scriptures, perhaps further in their walk with the Lord....I am just a mother of 7 who is in the trenches here. I just wanted to share what the Lord has been impressing on me.

I have been fasting and praying with Times Square Church all year for their Tues. night prayer service. Fasting comes very hard for me. I have noticed that the immediate day or 2 or 3 after the fasts, almost without fail, horrific things happen in my life and family. It took me awhile to catch on to this, but I remember a quote I heard from D. L. Moody once after someone hurled insults at him on the street, and he threw up his hat in the air and exclaimed, "Hallelujah, the devil still hates me!" So, when I am tempted to stop fasting because it is SO HARD, and I feel my prayers are to no avail because my children are still in sin and the world...I remember....all these horrific things coming on me are the enemy's attempts to get me to stop....stop fasting, stop praying. And a holy fire rises up in me to press on. I am a wimpy saint. I want my comforts, I sink into despair quite often, I want all to be well in my home....but then I remember, the devil hates me and the cause of Christ. So I rise up out of my wimpiness and press on.

I can't help thinking of the comparison to the jihadists ever since 9/11 and most recently, the attacks in Paris. One sees over and over the videos and reports of the tenacity of the jihadists for the cause of radical Islam. They do not stop. Attacks from the enemy stir them to the very depths, even to the death of being suicide bombers. Their cause is so evil and backed by the enemy of Christ. If they can continue with such passion, how much more should we, with resurrection power within us, be about the warfare we are called to. I am very convicted this morning, when everything in me wants to quit. Let us press on fellow soldiers for Christ....Much is at stake!

Unfortunately the great amount of good work being done on behalf of and for the Kingdom does not make headlines.

There are probably more lives saved daily via Christian service than were killed in the Paris attacks. But to the media that is a big

I can't help thinking of the comparison to the jihadists ever since 9/11 and most recently, the attacks in Paris. One sees over and over the videos and reports of the tenacity of the jihadists for the cause of radical Islam. They do not stop. Attacks from the enemy stir them to the very depths, even to the death of being suicide bombers. Their cause is so evil and backed by the enemy of Christ. If they can continue with such passion, how much more should we, with resurrection power within us, be about the warfare we are called to. I am very convicted this morning, when everything in me wants to quit. Let us press on fellow soldiers for Christ....Much is at stake!

Dear sister, thank you for sharing this encouragement with us, I too have a deep sense of urgency and of the need for diligent and vigilant prayer and fasting in this time. We really do need to be encouraging one another as much as possible right now. Also, don't forsake gathering together with other believers.

The temptations to despair are fierce, but I do believe that this is a harbinger of a breakthrough, oh for the spirit of prayer to come upon the church!

In Christ,

That was a good word from the Lord I am sure of it. I too was lamenting along similar lines today actually, my approach to it is somewhat different though. I have no misconceptions about my own humanity and the level of enjoyment I gain from creature comforts and the weakness of my physical estate, I jokingly say I am slow to fast, but I have seen a need to in the last months like never before. I do comfort myself with the mental exercise of acknowledging that when I feel nothing or when afterwards I seem to come under attack more directly it is an open show of just how effective my personal time of prayer w/fasting was and when I can not sense that direct attack back afterwards I sometimes wonder as to the effectiveness. Just a thought from a different prospective.

Sister I appreciate your humility. But frankly it is easier to be a Jihadist and die to falsehood than live for truth. We are called to live for truth, to testify of the truth. It is easy to believe a lie that they will be granted virgins in heaven and die in a fraction of second. But it is difficult to live with the hole world against your belief, with unseen forces trying to pull you down in temptations etc.

But God is in our side. He who is inside us is much greater than those in the world.

Honestly I value the poor smallshop vendors in India a lot more than these Jihadists. These vendors open their shop at 5AM to catch early customers. They run their shops till late night, all to make decent money to feed his family. If a man can work so hard for earning bread then how much more should we be willing to work for nonperishable reward!