“The enemy wants you today.”

These were the surprising words pouring from my mouth as my daughter asked to come out of her room.

“He wants you.  He wants to be in control of your emotions, ruin your relationships, and run this home. But he can’t have you…”

“Now, what you need to do is go back in your room.”

My kids began the day as usual: breakfast, watching a show, playing Legos together.

But my morning was different.  Before they woke up, I watched a video about a threat in our country that would inevitably take away a Christian’s freedom of religion.

“God,” I prayed, “Bring a revival to our country.  Protect us from those who wish to take away our freedoms.  Give my kids spiritual strength to face oppression.  If they are asked one day to renounce their faith, Lord, help them stand.”

My children came down for the day and hugged me.  I stroked my daughter’s hair and pondered what their futures as Christ-followers in this nation will be.  Will they be ordered to renounce Christ?  Will they be persecuted as Christians?

My focus was on the enemy without, not realizing there was an enemy trying to work within our home that morning.

The Battleground

Now, if you have kids that love to play Legos together, you know that a Lego table can be a battleground for who gets to use which bricks.  And that morning, my kids began a meltdown, tear-filled battle of Legos right in the living room, not 5 minutes into playing.

I could have sent them to their rooms and been done with it.  But my daughter’s tears over the fight with her brother and her Lego structure crashing to the carpet were more intense than usual.

They went to their rooms to calm down.

“God, fill me with your Holy Spirit to handle this well.  I don’t have the capacity.  Help me see it clearly.”

Five minutes later, she emerged.  “Mom, I’m ready to come out of my room.  I’ve calmed down,” she said with arms crossed, eyes still red from crying.  Briefly I realized that the time I spent praying for my children’s future…the threat that looms for them outside…was just as real inside our home.  The enemy that is laying out a strategy for followers of Christ nation-wide was hoping to lay a strategy right here.

That’s when I spoke these surprising words…calmly, but firmly:

“The enemy wants you today.  He wants you.  He wants to be in control of your emotions, ruin your relationships, and run this home.  He sees your desire to love your brother, but wants to steal that.  He wants you. But he can’t have you.  Because you have the Holy Spirit in you.  He’s not in charge here.”

“Now, what you need to do is go back in your room.”

“But why, Mom?”

“Because no amount of words I say are truly going to help you right now.  My words can only do so much.  You trying to control your emotions can only do so much.  You need to be alone, and you need to open God’s Word.”

“You’re not in trouble.  I’m not mad.  I just know what you need because every believer needs it.  The only thing you need right now is God.  So go to your room,  read the list of Bible verses I gave you, or read the Psalms and see what God has to say to you.  Pray.  He’s the only one who can help right now.  The enemy won’t have you.”

And like that, she disappeared upstairs.

The enemy’s victories at home

As I sat at my desk, reflecting on the words God had just given me, I realized:  There’s no doubt the enemy is working on a large-scale in our nation.

But the large-scale strategies of the enemy work because he has lots of small-scale victories.  Small-scale victories like…

• spouses who put their own needs above the other’s
• family schedules too packed with the temporal to consider the eternal
• a parent’s job becoming more important than their child
• those who make their spouse or children into an idol
• being permissive of sin in ourselves & our home
• convincing ourselves that the strategy is only outside, not inside…that it is against flesh & blood and not the forces of darkness.

Yes, the enemy has large-scale victories because in homes all across our nation, he has won an impressive number of small-scale victories.  And we’ve let him.  Even Christian families have let him by not using the power inside them, the same power that rose Jesus from the dead to make different choices and say, “The enemy won’t have this home.”

As I considered small-scale victories the enemy attempts in our home, she came downstairs.

She calmly handed me this card.

Once I opened it, I knew the enemy didn’t have victory this time.  Not over my daughter, over me, or over my home.

I’m not sure how God spoke to her…whether it was her prayer time, his Word, or both.  But whatever God did with my daughter in those 30 minutes, he once again revealed to her that he wins BIG in the life of believers.  It showed her that God’s power is greater every time and that he cares for her enough to prove it to her in his own, personalized, intimate way.  That’s infinitely more powerful than any words I speak.

And even if the enemy has large-scale victories through many small-scale ones, today in our home, he couldn’t build his strategy with one more.

Believer, these “small” victories for God in our homes are anything but small to God.  Every victory we have because of the power of his name is LARGE-SCALE and another defeat for the enemy of our souls.  Every choice we make to honor God with our families is a victory the enemy runs from.

He will not have our homes, families, marriages, or souls.  And the strategies he has against our nation CAN be fought, one “small”-scale Christ victory at a time, inside our homes…even when the battleground is a Lego table.

Want the list of 18 verses I gave my daughter?  Download it by clicking here. 

What kinds of victories have you won against the enemy in your home?  Comment below!