"Frenemies"

All of my "friends" canceled for my birthday get-together. This wasn't totally unexpected, they had been canceling pretty much every time we planned to hang out. I made a new goal of meeting new people and finding Godly friends that were dependable, and even those aspirations failed, when I didn't get any invitations to hang out the following weekend, either! Even my family was going to be out of town on my birthday weekend!

I suddenly noticed how alone I felt. I got angry, but then I realized that this wasn't any thing I've done, but rather a spiritual battle. Satan was attacking me, feeding me LIES that 'I should never trust anyone because they will always let you down,' 'you will always be lonely,' 'if you started doing worldly things maybe you would have friends,' 'no one cares about your birthday, not even your family..' these are all things I felt!

I have finally learned that once you realize you're being attacked by satans lies, you should go to God's truth, His Word. So, at work, I started typing in keywords of "dependable," and "friendship" to find verses in the online Bible that would make my friends look like the one at fault. After a while, I remembered hearing that God may be holding blessings for you and Satan is trying to keep you from them. I changed my search to focus more on my spiritual battle within ME, not my friends and here is what I found:

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (The Message)

"Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! My grace is enough; it's all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness...
...Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become."

"…because they cried out to him during the battle. God answered their prayers because they trusted him" (1 Chronicles 5:20)

Duet. 20:2-4
…"Attention, Israel. In a few minutes you're going to do battle with your enemies. Don't waver in resolve. Don't fear. Don't hesitate. Don't panic. God, your God, is right there with you, fighting with you against your enemies, fighting to win."…

After I went to the word, I sent out an e-mail to the women in my Circle of Pearls Bible study and the replies over-flowed with encouragement, wisdom, and truth. Their prayers gave me the immediate result of PEACE.

My leaders came by, brought me a cake, balloon and present! They also prayed with me. It is awesome not only knowing people are praying for you, but HEARING their words.

They reminded me that the work I am doing is eternal, lonliness won't last forever, and that my future husband won't be "a minute late or a minute early, but right on time."

I am so thankful that the Lord does want to bless me and that he revealed to me HOW he has, in the FRIENDS he lifted up and brought to meet my need in the midst of a battle that was not my own, when I turned to HIS truth before I let Satan's LIE defeat me!