Your mention of alphabetical steps, reaching as far as P for place and prayer, tells me you have been clinging to every small mercy as a token of hope. This is not unlike that woman who pressed through the crowd with a hidden faith, saying in herself, “If I may only touch His garment, I shall be whole.” She did not demand a public audience, nor did she wait for all obstacles to be cleared away; she came secretly, yet her confidence was not diminished by the throng of sinners and publicans who pressed around our Lord. She knew from what sorts He had come and to whom He went, and that gave her boldness. So you, though you see the scouts and spies of the enemy thick about you, must not let go of that same boldness. The very fact that you have moved from letter to letter shows that the hand of Christ has been stretched out toward you, even if you feel exhausted.
But I must speak a warning that cuts close to the bone. You speak of Satan and demons and creatures that make every day hard, and your heart inclines to quit the fight because of them. Yet beware lest your prayers become like those of the slothful who, while they neglect their own repentance, pray against their enemies. It is an unlawful prayer to seek the ruin of others, even of evil spirits, as though our salvation depended on their removal. He who taught us to pray for those who persecute us did not give leave to curse the unseen enemy. If you fill your mouth with such petitions, you only add to your own burden, because you have made your prayer itself a new grievance before God. Instead, when the enemy presses hard, say with the Psalmist, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” The battle is not principally about a vehicle or a vapor, but about whether you will hold fast to the rejoicing of hope.
And that is what sustains you: the rejoicing of the hope. You have gone as far as P. You have a part-time labor, two cats, a second career upon the horizon. These are not small things, for they are pledges of the future good that your heart desires. You must learn to glory in them as though they were already full grown, not because your eyes see the finished work, but because Christ as a Son over His own house has promised to complete it. The hope of the resurrection, the hope of adoption, the hope of being conformed to the image of the Son, these are the solid realities that no spy can snatch away. When you feel yourself sinking, remember that you have received the Spirit of adoption, and that this is a greater treasure than any passport or earthly place.
Consider the ancient saints who were tortured and refused deliverance, when they might have gone free, because they looked for a better resurrection. We have not yet been called to such a trial, yet the principle remains: sometimes God does not remove the danger but grants us to despise it. He may permit you to struggle with the cost of a vapor and the absence of a vehicle, not to crush you, but to teach you that deliverance from such things is small compared to the weight of glory that awaits. When He stood with His disciples, He did not promise them exemption from death; He gave them something far greater, the courage to look death in the face and see it swallowed up in victory. So this exhaustion you feel, this desire to quit, is the very place where His strength can be made perfect, if you will not let go.
Therefore, do not mistake weariness for defeat. The restoration you have tasted, loving yourself again, desiring a godly husband and another pet, are signs that your heart is being revived. These longings are not evil, provided they are submitted to the will of Him who designed marriage as a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman. But fix your eyes not on the gifts alone, but on the Giver. The alphabet you have traced is not a ladder you climb by your own effort; it is the track of His mercy, and He who began this good work will carry it on until the day of Christ Jesus. Lay aside the fretful counting of what still lacks, and let every letter become a cause for thanksgiving.
Quit, then, not the race, but the vain expense that wastes your substance and clouds your mind. To give up a harmful habit is a form of deliverance itself, even if it pinches the purse. God will supply what is needful, whether a door to a new home or the restoration of your voice and song. Yet the deepest peace does not come when the warfare ends, but when you abide in the cleft of the Rock while the battle still rages. The Saviour did not promise that the demonic adversaries would cease to prowl, but that the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church. Stand fast, then, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and let the spiritual realm you speak of break through into your daily walk by the quiet fruits of patience and gratitude, not by anxious demands for immediate sight.
Your letters have brought you to prayer, and there you must rest. Let it be a prayer not of clamor against the hosts of darkness, but of humble confidence that He who clothed Himself in our flesh to deliver us from the curse of the law will also fulfill every pledge He has made. Go forward, then, calmly, with the same secret touch of faith, and believe that the very next door will open, not because the enemy has fled, but because the Lord of the house has risen and stands knocking.