Who the real enemy is

There is something about being in a time of suffering and trial where it seems to as though give permission to life to just keep adding more to it. Why is it that when we need to find peace, rest, hope, comfort, and love the most life seems to throw at us the exact opposite? Why does the seasons of rain in our life often bring upon turbulent storms?

These last 9 months in therapy, my therapist keeps saying these 6 words to us "Remember who the real enemy is."

It's easy to blame God when we are facing seasons of suffering in our lives. It's easy to become more like Naomi than to become like Ruth during the turbulent storms. Losing Katherine, has made me better understand Naomi. I think any mother that has lost a child understands a little more about Naomi. Ruth 1 vs 5 says "and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband." Naomi, literally lost everything. In a time when women were solely dependent upon their spouses, and sons to take care of them, Naomi, lost all of her protection, and providers. But more than just her lively hood, having experienced child loss now, I see that Naomi lost her heart. There is a part of a woman that dies when she loses her child. Its something that I can't really explain, but one that I know that every woman that has lost can agree with...a part of our hearts, die, a long with our child...we bury a piece of ourselves along with our child........there just isn't anyway that we can't.

The heartache of losing her husband, and her two sons, her protection, her providers, left Naomi feeling hopeless, lost,so much so that she tried to send away the only two people in her life that were left, her daughter-in-laws. She successfully turned Orpah back to her own family, but Ruth,oh sweet Ruth clung to her and would not let Naomi push her away. Now I know that Naomi wanted to make sure that her daughter-in-laws still had a chance to life, maybe even happiness, because she tells them as much in vs 9 "the Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!" But the mother part of me that has lost speaks different volumes to my heart in this passage. Naomi is desolate and why should she drag her beautiful daughter-in-laws further into destitution. Naomi, knows that when it rains, it pours, and she knows that husband less women really got poured on.....she only saw what she "KNEW" or at least was for sure was coming...more destitution, a harder life. Not only did she want to spare her daughter-in-laws of this, I also think she wanted to spare herself the heartache of having to watch them face that struggle. Then there is that famous line Naomi says after arriving to Bethlehem and everyone is greeting them in 1:20

“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter."
 
As I said earlier, it is easy to blame God when life seems to be throwing us farther down the pit of despair. Why is this? Well, Naomi, just as many of us Christians do, recognizes that God is ultimately in control. There is nothing that surprises him. He deems what will and will not happen to us in our lifetime. Yes, many things that happen in this earthly world just happen because we live in a world effected by sin (not necessarily that we have done something specifically that causes something bad to happen) but if we believe that God is who he says he is than we also know that he allows terrible tragedies to occur everyday....Not that he causes said tragedies because God can not cause evil...but it is hard for us to separate in our heads the fact that God allows but does not cause. It's terribly hard to grasp. Naomi, shows us as much in that verse..."the Almighty HAS MADE my life very bitter." If Naomi, was alive today and sitting before my therapist he would say to her those 6 words I first mentioned earlier "Remember who the real enemy is." 

And who is that enemy? In short Satan, the evil powers that be and yes do totally exist. There is a spiritual warfare constantly waging for our souls. Not that I think Satan is omnipresent and all powerful but I do think that scripture tells us that there is more going on in the spiritual realms that we even like to admit. The enemy is the evil one...the enemy is Satan and his forces that do exist and wage war, the enemy is all those little voices inside our heads that want us to run away from God instead of towards him when we are in a season of pouring rain.

When we, when I, don't remember who the real enemy is, we/I blame God, and we also blame ourselves (some are totally our mistakes but somethings aren't). I blame God for the bitter taste the down pour is leaving in my mouth. And I feel defeated, and crushed, and everything seems so pointless, and hopeless. BUT when I remember who the real enemy is, something changes within my soul. I HATE that enemy all the more. When I remember who is really behind my daughter's death, it makes me want to stand, and fight for justice, for her. When I remember who the real enemy is it doesn't make me want to curse God it makes me want to fight harder against the enemy. It makes me want to prove to the enemy that he picked the wrong person to try to bring down and turn against the LORD. When I remember who the real enemy is, and WHO THE LORD IS I am left feeling confident and victorious because I KNOW that the Lord IS going to defeat that enemy.

Naomi, was bitter from her suffering, I can so see why...she suffered greatly and not all of it was even because of her own doing. Life can do that to us, it can leave us feeling defeated, bitter, and hopeless, but even in the midst of those things....I think we can all find a Ruth in our lives...that person, that clings to us and begs us to let them stay and walk with us on our hard journey. If we don't have a Ruth, a welcomed beacon of hope, comfort and love, we pray for one....because it's the Ruth's of our lives that help us from changing our names to "Mara."