Take courage. Get back up.

We’ve had the wind knocked out of us a bit, yes? All of us, in different ways. No matter where you stand, we’re feeling the effects of the fight.

Everyone’s been punched. 

That’s just my hunch anyway, I can only speak for myself. I feel like a spiritual battle’s been going on that’s beating the tar out of me. Mine mostly took place Friday night, when the enemy took a good but hard thing and exploited it to create the perfect storm of condemnation, hopelessness, fear, anxiety. I don’t remember the last time I cried that hard or felt that utterly hopeless. Of course, I was scheduled to speak the very next morning on the topic of … wait for it … PEACE. 

Perfect. Share on peace when I have exactly none of it to share. 

Even my sleep was fitful. Sweat, dreams, tossing and turning. Then in the middle of the night, a text woke me up. A friend. Word of truth. Nothing earth-shattering but a voice from outside the storm, calling quietly, “God’s in this.”

Oh yes. That’s right. God is in this.

The next morning my eyes were swollen and misshapen from crying. So I sat & read the Scriptures with icepacks rotating each eye, trying to get the swelling down before I went to speak. I looked like I’d been in a fight. Ha! I had!

We all have in some way or another. 

I don’t share this to whine, “Oh poor Kari she got sad.” I share this because we have ALL felt the effects. Not just of an election: Let’s not miss the real enemy here and he’s against US ALL. 

Of course, by God’s amazing grace, He brought both the words about PEACE and the actual PEACE to rule my heart and mind. He also brought amazing women, of all different types, to come together and bust our tails (it was a fitness camp) and pursue peace together, to love and cheer each other on. We were all so deeply encouraged.

But the battle isn’t over, right? We are still facing a foe that wants nothing more than to steal, kill, and destroy. Us all. He wants to trick us into thinking we are each other’s enemies. He wants us to turn on each other. He wants to lure us into self-protection and fear. He wants us to sink down into hopelessness and despair. 

But we won’t.

I urge you, believer: Take courage. Get back up. 

Believer, we need to contend for revival. And I’m not talking tent-meetings or traveling evangelists. The word revival simply describes being revived.

We need this. The church needs to be revived. Individuals need to be revived. Hope and faith need to be revived–not faith in our country per se, but faith in Jesus Christ. The good news is, even though believers may be divided on what the best political course of action may be, the good news is:

It’s driving us all to PRAY. My hope is that the turmoil takes us to our knees like never before. That it leads us to repentance, to self-examination, to return to the Scriptures, to love the lost, to recognize this world is not our home, that our citizenship is in heaven, and our Eternal King has never lost an election and never will.

He is the hope of the world. 

Wherever you have been knocked down, however you are hopeless or discouraged … get back up.

You know how we get back up? We get back down on our knees in prayer. We get back in the fight, not against what we can see, but against the invisible forces at work in our world, against despair and fear, against pride and greed, against blame and bitterness.

Not sure what to pray? Jesus suggested something like so:

Our Father, who is in Heaven, 

make holy your name above all names,

Let your rule and reign, your plan and purpose, your kingdom be established,

here on earth as perfectly as it is in heaven.

Give us the provision that we need, just as you’ve promised to do,

And forgive us our wrongs,

as we choose to forgive any who have wronged us, in any way,

Please lead us away from all temptation, from any thoughts or actions that would lead us astray,

And deliver us from the Evil One and all his works and schemes.

For Yours, O God, is the Kingdom, and all the power, and all the glory, forever and ever. 

Let it be.

Have a blessed week, friends. Thanks for reading.