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At (in)courage, we empower women to be like Jesus. Our writers share what’s going on in their life and how God’s right in the middle of it. They bring their joys & struggles so that you can feel less alone and be empowered by the hope Jesus gives.

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things we love
& you will too!
Find more at
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  1. Friendly fire? You can get killed by that. it is sad that Christians can not rise above that. I’ve experienced this, I try to meet people at their faith level. the deeper you are in faith, the devil throws the darts. Christians shouldn’t be loaning him their words, they should remember the Lord’s. He is our peace. Great post!

    • It’s hard sometimes, isn’t it Rebecca? But we can be always in prayer for each other, that we would resist the enemy’s temptation and build each other up. We can’t do it in our own strength, but by His grace and mercy, we CAN learn to love each other better, and tune our hearts to sing the same song.

  2. Another verse that comes to mind with the topic of dissension is this: “As much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” I’m so thankful that Paul recognized that sometimes it’s beyond our control. Even so, we are responsible for our right behavior toward those who will not live in peace. I used to tell my kids that when they were sinned against, they were not justified in “sinning back.”
    I think too often we “sin back” as a default.

  3. Fervent is a great study that re-confirms the lessons we learn from the movie “War Room”. Fervent also, anchors powerful truths and principles that we learned from Miss Clara and Elizabeth in the movie “War Room”. Our enemy, Satan (the fox), is trying very hard to weaken our faith with every step we take along our life’s journey with our Savior & Lord and our Heavenly Father. When Satan comes knocking at our heart’s door to rob us of our faith, we need to answer with James 4:7 and kick him out just like Elizabeth did in “War Room”. Prayer sends Satan (the fox) away from our lives (the henhouse). Resisting the devil is hard at times to do because we are made of clay (flesh); but that is when we should double up on calling home to our Heavenly Father for help in resisting the fox in our henhouse. In Song of Solomon, God sends in a warning to watch out for the fox that can rob us of our faith, our daily walk, our relationship with Him, and our relationship with others (that includes our mate/date). Satan is friendly fire of trying us to retreat from our faith, just only makes us dig deeper and stronger into our faith in Him. Ephesians 6:10-20 tells us to put our Spiritual Armor on daily and to seal it with prayer. In Proverbs 4:20-23 tells to guard our hearts, because that is where the Spirit dwells within us. In God’s Holy Word, He tells many many times over to meet and gather with other believers because we try strength from them and because Satan can not with stand two or more praying in the name of our Lord and Savior.

  4. Kris,
    Satan loves to destroy families, friends any relationships you have. We should strive for peace–to shod our feet with the peace of Christ!!! I’ve noticed this in my life a lot in the past & didn’t realize it was Satan. Now I can see clearly that He was in the middle of all this!! My motto has always been Ephesians 4:26-27 “Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.” Trying to always apologize for mistakes I made or things I said. I always tried to express my sorrow & talk about my stressors & ask for forgiveness. We both would hug and kiss!! Now my focus is on prayer as much as anything! I find myself praying to keep my mouth shut and love Him for who he is!!!
    Blessings 🙂

  5. Your relationships- I didn’t really think that this strategy applied to me, until I read through it. You see, my husband and I are a blended family. Often times the friendly fire comes from ourselves. Coming together to lead a family to Christ becomes difficult when both sides bring to the table very different histories and parenting strategies. Instead of remembering to remain a united front, so often the enemy will try to separate us, coming against the very thing that binds us together, Love. He will underhandedly sneak in and press tender areas to cause division and chaos. After all, a family at odds cannot serve Christ when it is distracted. Our prayers and focus become hindered. As the revelation of this truth came to me I now know how to be watchful to not allow the enemy opportunities to divide and conquer. Prayer changes everything. I loved being a part of this study.. Thank you!

  6. This is a hard one for me – we recently left a wonderful church because of hurt we sustained there. In one of our darkest seasons, the people we thought we could count on suddenly disappeared into the shadows, leaving us to fend for ourselves. It was ugly and it was hard. Now we are in a new church and it is hard to allow ourselves to trust and feel comfortable there, even though we want to. I know this is the enemy trying his best to keep us from truly engaging in community, so I’m grateful for the guidance from this chapter on how to pray to combat it.