The Battle Within

This is just a quote from a devo I've been doing and some thoughts the Father gave afterwards. It was talking about those who are poor in spirit.

"A castle that has been long besieged and is ready to be taken will
deliver up on any terms to save their lives. He whose heart has been a
garrison for the devil and has held out long in opposition against
Chr---t, when once The Father has brought him to poverty of spirit and
he sees himself damned without Chr---t, let The Father propound what
articles He may, he will readily subscribe to them. 'Lord, what will
you have me to do?'" (Thomas Watson).

I think we often don’t see our hearts as a stronghold for the devil. We see them as basically good or ok – as we check ourselves by our moral standards or the culture around us. We don’t understand why we have to be broken so much or lose so many things if we’re “doing pretty good”. We consider G to be slightly mean and cruel because He keeps attacking and tearing down our hearts that were doing ok. He starves out enemies that are in us that are hiding that we don’t know about. He besieges our whole being to put us in shock and to search our inner being and inner walls. Sometimes with our search but often by just pure emptiness we find the enemy inside. The secluded enemy/lie/habit that is with us surges from the darkness in fear and anger as its being starved for attention and it's way of life has been cut off. It crawls out snarling ready to fight and at that point we turn and realize what’s been inside this whole time (or maybe we already knew) but now with our realization of our weakness we surrender it to the Father. Then, He moves with His mighty Word to demolish all that is not of Him. A scepter of righteousness, light, and strength to dominate every form of evil so that life and love may full live abundantly. The one who "has it together" (is insecure/hiding/or unaware of what could be inside) is the one who needs to be besieged to recognize all that's within. But it's the poor in spirit, the one who acknowledge there probably are things hiding inside that need taken care of that He can rule in. Let us be that poor that He might rule in majesty.