Sometimes The Challenge Is Not To Feel God But To Not Let The Devil Touch You

     I found myself walking the beach a lot this week.   Normally, this means my life is swimming against the current, and I’m in need of scenery personifying God’s power and might.   Strolling the ocean’s shore repeatedly baptizes my being with re-found wisdom, hope and gratitude.   However, this week doused me with a new, divinely whispered wave – sometimes the challenge is not to feel God but rather to not let the devil touch you.

     Let me be honest.   I’m 99.9% certain each and all of us existing in today’s world are fighting to stay afloat in a riptide sea.   How many time a day do we cry out the despair of not being able to feel God anywhere or anyplace?   That was me this week, until God softly voiced His message.   Maybe it’s hard, or at time impossible, to see God in our society; but God, dwelling in our hearts and souls, can always be felt in our internal core.   We just need to stop, shut out the exterior noise and pray our hearts out in praise and petition.   God’s peace will then, most certainly, splash over our entire being.

     In truth, God shamed me this week.   The prime cause for my not feeling God’s presence was due to my senses all being in tune to letting the devil’s jabs capture my focus, touch my life and draw me from God’s inner peace to worldly, frantic frenzy.   Don’t get me wrong.   In no way am I saying to ignore, overlook or underestimate the devil’s warfare.   We must recognize and be aware of Satan’s threats, but beware if we let ourselves be so absorbed in Satan’s destruction that we abandon a solid base of resting in God and His power to allay our unrest.   Plain and simple, Satan gets a glance, but God is our stance.

     This week’s walks along the ocean didn’t end with me finding God and leaving Him there, waiting for me to return and find Him again.   Quite the opposite, God’s whisper in the waves stays inside of me for every moment of every day – and night.   Like a child placing his ear against his seashell listening for the voice of the ocean, I place my auditory (and inaudible) balance against the shell of my soul and vow to not let the shrill shrieks of Satan, but the presence of God’s peace and power, be the melody I hear and upon which I rest, stand and go forward.   Will you join me???