Breaking Down Strongholds Archives

“¹⁴And again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye. But Ruth clung tightly to Naomi. ¹⁵’Look,’ Naomi said to her, ‘your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. You should do the same.’ ¹⁶But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. ¹⁷Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!’ ¹⁸When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.” ~ Ruth 1:14-18

Ruth saw that if she returned to her people, she would worse off. She gave up false gods that she grew up with, the culture she was raised in, her false safe place and followed Naomi. Ruth got out of her comfort zone just so she could be close to her true safe place.

Our safe place is with God, yet we are afraid to walk out of our comfort zone to get to Him. We don’t wanna give up our traditions, our friends, our beliefs, our false gods and idols, our strongholds, our addictions, our comfort zone to be with God. All of these things will slowly kill us spiritually because we die where God isn’t, and God isn’t in any of those places.

Orpah couldn’t see past her comfort zone, she couldn’t see the life that would have come from sticking with Naomi. She missed it. But Ruth saw it. She clung to it. She obeyed it. She followed it. She served it. And she was blessed because of it. She will forever be known as one of Jesus’ ancestors. A foreigner with sin, who didn’t grow up with the law, she had foreign gods and idols, yet she saw life and chased after it, so God blessed her for it. And He saved her soul.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Run To Your Safe Zone.

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“¹⁴But Amnon wouldn’t listen to her, and since he was stronger than she was, he raped her. ¹⁵Then suddenly Amnon’s love turned to hate, and he hated her even more than he had loved her. ‘Get out of here!’ he snarled at her.” ~ 2 Samuel 13:14-15

Amnon desired his sister, Tamar. She was all he could think about. It kept him from sleeping. Eating. Functioning as a regular person, so he and his cousin cultivated a lie to get alone time with his sister Tamar. Once he gave in to his desire, what he thought was love immediately turned to hate.

That’s exactly how sin works. We desire it. We seek it out. We devise a plan to get it. Then once it’s over, we hate it, and usually, we hate ourselves as well. We swear we’ll never do it again, that that was the only time. And then the desire builds up again and we go after it again. That’s how strongholds develop. It starts out as something we think we love, something we think we can’t do without, something we swear we’ll only try once, then once we give in, we feel disgusted with ourselves and our sin, and finally, the stronghold starts all over again.

It’s an endless loop that keeps you captive and a slave. Fight the desire. Jesus promises if you resist the Devil, he will flee. Jesus overcame and so can you. Call on His name and He will break any and all chains.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Resist Your Tamar.

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