The Quiet Room

When things in our lives seem to be going from bad to worse it's usually because Satan is trying to pull us away from God. He knows when our faith is at its strongest and his usual tactics won't work, so he needs to do something a little more drastic. This is usually when he'll attack us where he knows it will hurt the most, within our own families and loved ones. Our troubles are now so close to home there seems to be no escape.

There is an escape. We need to go into a quiet room and meditate on God's Word and pray. We need to try to banish all the bad thoughts and worries from our minds and think only of things that are "honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report." If we would try to concentrate more on these things and on that which has virtue and is worthy of praise, "the God of peace shall be with us." (Philippians 4: 8) This is a promise He has given that will never fail.

So many times when we wrestle with our problems, trying so hard to fix things on our own, we end up getting frustrated and soon realize it's totally beyond our human strength. This is exactly what God is talking about when He says "we wrestle not against the flesh, but against spirits and principalities." Without God the flesh cannot fight against spiritual foes and indeed, sometimes we're very aware of the fact we're fighting a losing battle. Yet we exhaust ourselves, trying to fix everything any way we possibly can. Satan is succeeding in wearing us down and we desperately need a rest, an escape.

When things get too hard to bear, we need to go to that quiet "room" and shut everything else out and fix our thoughts and minds on God. Satan cannot enter where our thoughts are fixed on God. He cannot touch us there! As we do this more and more things will begin to calm down and we will see our problems beginning to fade. We will be reminded that everything, including our problems, is in God's control. No matter what the outcome, we can be confident it will be for the good of everyone involved because we know it will be according to His purpose. We can rest in that assurance as we rest in Him.