Carmen said to herself, “This is just another trick of the adversary!” She and her boyfriend of eleven months have had a pretty good thing going between the two of them. She was becoming hopeful that he was the one sent by God, but the strangest thing was happening. Boyfriends from the past were coming out of the woodworks. They were reaching out to her out of the blue, and this gave her pause. She wondered why this was happening when she seemed to be close to what she had prayed to receive. And not only that, why were these men suddenly interested in a future with her when none of them had been that way in the past?
The destiny that God has for each of us in Christ is an extraordinary reality. Nothing else that we do will ever come close to the blessing of walking in God’s purpose and fulfilling it according to His divine plan. It is important for us to remember that God has a book in heaven for every individual, and whenever we align our steps on the path that He has laid before us, the aroma of victory on us is louder. It is a stench the devil hates, and he will intensify his efforts to get us off destiny’s trail.
Hebrews 12:1(ESV) encourages us in the faith. It says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The Bible gives us wonderful records of ordinary men and women that achieved extraordinary victories for God’s Kingdom because of their fully persuaded faith in Him. These men and women are our examples. Our Heavenly Father is letting us know under no uncertain terms that He has a work for each of us. Like the great cloud of witnesses, this work for His Kingdom will require our fully persuaded faith in Him as well. He commands us to lay aside the weight we’ve been carrying and the sin that we turned a blind eye to in the past. This is required to run the race that He alone has set before every born-again believer.
Marriage is God’s institution, and it is a very important piece regarding the fulfillment of our purpose. We must not forget that the blessings of God are contained within our diligence and attentiveness to the race He’s given us. To keep us from this, the enemy will reach back into the unfinished business of our past wounds and sins and try to trap us with them. God warns us in 1Peter 5:8(ESV) “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” God commands us to resist the plots and tricks of the enemy. Doing this might require us to deal with the weight from the hurt of broken relationships of the past.
There are sins we’ve committed against God’s Will and Word that we have not repented from. And to be honest, for some of us, the same things we did in past relationships, we’re still doing today. Some of us haven’t changed and don’t plan to. This is a dangerous mindset, and it will rob us of the blessings that God has in store. We might have even caused the person we were involved with to sin against God, and we never sought the Lord for forgiveness. Things like these represent unfinished business of the past. Our failure to repent, change, and put on more of the love of God, allows the enemy an opening to continue to prick us.
Blaming the other person for the relationship taking a turn for the worse is common, and we never accept any responsibility for our part in it. Life will cycle back lessons we need to learn until we learn them. So, when beaus and boos from the past come back and try to enter our space, understand that it could very well be a trick from the devil. Your responsibility is to not be tricked, but to use it as an opportunity to secure the blessing you currently have. Seek the Lord’s forgiveness, and if He says so, apologize to the one who hurt you or that you may have hurt. It’s entirely possible that you caused them to sin, and you have the opportunity to set this right. Speak words of peace, wipe the dust from the past off you, and proceed on with gratitude and faith in the blessing of your current relationship. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Don’t Be Tricked Out of Your Blessing”, written by Kim Times, edited by Reverend Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2022. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.