I felt stirred in my heart to bring you a word of encouragement today as we are living in unprecedented times right now. The whole world has come to a halt and is watching and waiting to see what is next. It can be an overwhelming place in our minds if we stop and listen to swirling dialogue in our heads from the media telling us what all the possibilities could be for outcomes from this pandemic. We all have the opportunity to let fear grip us and become frozen. At some moment, probably everyone of us have been bombarded with these swirling thoughts attacking us and tempting us to be overwhelmed by our current situation whether it is fear of being sick, or the massive change in our lives, or the economic ramifications that have hit us personally or our family and friends. However, we are not without hope!

Hope is a powerful force and it can bring light into the dark places of our minds and hearts. Ephesians 5:13 says “But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light (of God’s precepts), for it is light that makes everything visible.” The very next verse in this passage says “Awake, sleeper and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine as dawn upon you and give you light.” God has brought us His light that shines on darkness and illuminates things to us and brings us hope! When we feel in the dark, the most impactful thing we can do is simply ask the Holy Spirit to bring light to us so that we can once again have vision to see. This is so relevant to where we are in history right now, we need to ask the Holy Spirit for His illumination of light in our hearts and minds. We need to ask Him to awaken hope in us!

What hope do you need right now? What area of your life and heart needs to be awakened today? Is there an area of darkness in your mind or heart that needs the bright light of Jesus to break through and bring peace in and melt away the fortress of fear and doubt. Every stronghold can be torn down with the power and name of Jesus Christ. Every bondage that tries to take you captive has to bow at the name of Jesus and be loosed because of the price He paid on the cross to bring you freedom.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NLT says, ” We are human, but we don’t wage war with human plans and methods. We use God’s mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil’s strongholds. With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons we conquer their rebellious ideas, and we teach them to obey Christ.” This passage tells us that we have power through God’s mighty weapons to tear down strongholds in our minds that don’t agree with the Truth of God’s Word. The negative dialogue in your head has to stop when you take authority over destructive thoughts that try to bombard your thinking with the power of God by taking it captive to the obedience of Christ. We have the ability to conquer the strongholds from the enemy that try to hold us captive by breaking down the fortress of fear with the powerful Word of God and filing our minds and hearts with it. This isn’t just a theory but actually works because what God says in His Word has more power than the whispers the enemy tells you.