Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your request for agreement in prayer has been heard, and I stand with you before God in this battle you are facing.
You describe deep spiritual battles, negative thoughts, and a war within. Scripture knows this inward war well. The soul can become distracted and divided, with waves upon waves of cares and a sleet of thoughts fighting inside. When you are insulted or pressed, two thoughts often wrestle together, one urging you toward anger or revenge and the other calling you to endure with grace. In that struggle you need an umpire, and that umpire is the peace of God. A peace that comes from people quickly dissolves, but the peace that comes from God is fixed and steadfast. When you let the peace of God rule in your heart, it gives the prize to endurance and puts the bitter thought to shame, because God Himself is peace and He has made peace with you through Christ.
You mention feeling as if witchcraft is at work against you. Hear what Scripture teaches, that hatred, strife, heresies and witchcraft do not come simply from our nature or from our flesh as if we only suffer them, but from earthly thoughts that trail upon the ground and from a depraved moral choice. That is why it is said they practice such things, not they suffer them, and that those who practice them will not inherit the kingdom of God. Rewards and punishments relate to choice, not to nature. This is not to condemn you, but to show you where true freedom lies. Do not be ashamed to take the lowly place before God. If the Lord Himself took the form of a servant, how much more should we lay aside high thoughts. One spiritual excellence is to have no high thoughts about ourselves, but to humbly choose Christ and His way in every thought.
Signs alone will not make the mind steady. The Ninevites believed without signs, while others saw many miracles and grew worse, making themselves a habitation for evil and bringing greater calamities upon themselves. When a person is delivered and yet fails to be corrected, he will suffer worse than before, finding no rest and falling again into the ambush of the enemy. You should be sobered both by the suffering you have known and by the deliverance God has already given, and take warning so that you walk carefully with a considerate mind, guarding your heart after God lifts you up.
Know also that even when you feel overwhelmed, you can rise again. Like a spark of unquenchable fire that falls into the sea and seems lost under many waves, yet rises shining to the surface, so God can bring you through these perils more radiant than before. Others before you were tortured and would not accept deliverance, because they looked for a better resurrection. You have not yet obtained that resurrection, but you are called to the same endurance now, looking to Christ and choosing faithfulness day by day.
So I pray with you now that God will grant you His steadfast peace to rule in your heart, that He will clear your mind from earthly and bitter thoughts and fill you with thoughts that honor Him, that He will deliver you from every evil influence and teach you to walk in humble obedience and positive hope in Christ, and that He will strengthen you to endure through this wave of trials and come up shining in His strength. May the Lord keep you, correct you, and establish you in His love.
You describe deep spiritual battles, negative thoughts, and a war within. Scripture knows this inward war well. The soul can become distracted and divided, with waves upon waves of cares and a sleet of thoughts fighting inside. When you are insulted or pressed, two thoughts often wrestle together, one urging you toward anger or revenge and the other calling you to endure with grace. In that struggle you need an umpire, and that umpire is the peace of God. A peace that comes from people quickly dissolves, but the peace that comes from God is fixed and steadfast. When you let the peace of God rule in your heart, it gives the prize to endurance and puts the bitter thought to shame, because God Himself is peace and He has made peace with you through Christ.
You mention feeling as if witchcraft is at work against you. Hear what Scripture teaches, that hatred, strife, heresies and witchcraft do not come simply from our nature or from our flesh as if we only suffer them, but from earthly thoughts that trail upon the ground and from a depraved moral choice. That is why it is said they practice such things, not they suffer them, and that those who practice them will not inherit the kingdom of God. Rewards and punishments relate to choice, not to nature. This is not to condemn you, but to show you where true freedom lies. Do not be ashamed to take the lowly place before God. If the Lord Himself took the form of a servant, how much more should we lay aside high thoughts. One spiritual excellence is to have no high thoughts about ourselves, but to humbly choose Christ and His way in every thought.
Signs alone will not make the mind steady. The Ninevites believed without signs, while others saw many miracles and grew worse, making themselves a habitation for evil and bringing greater calamities upon themselves. When a person is delivered and yet fails to be corrected, he will suffer worse than before, finding no rest and falling again into the ambush of the enemy. You should be sobered both by the suffering you have known and by the deliverance God has already given, and take warning so that you walk carefully with a considerate mind, guarding your heart after God lifts you up.
Know also that even when you feel overwhelmed, you can rise again. Like a spark of unquenchable fire that falls into the sea and seems lost under many waves, yet rises shining to the surface, so God can bring you through these perils more radiant than before. Others before you were tortured and would not accept deliverance, because they looked for a better resurrection. You have not yet obtained that resurrection, but you are called to the same endurance now, looking to Christ and choosing faithfulness day by day.
So I pray with you now that God will grant you His steadfast peace to rule in your heart, that He will clear your mind from earthly and bitter thoughts and fill you with thoughts that honor Him, that He will deliver you from every evil influence and teach you to walk in humble obedience and positive hope in Christ, and that He will strengthen you to endure through this wave of trials and come up shining in His strength. May the Lord keep you, correct you, and establish you in His love.
