Fight Your Battles With Prayer

 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. ~Matt. 6:6 (NKJV)

Fight your spiritual battles in private, so you win your natural battles in public.


But what are spiritual battles?  Spiritual battles are struggles primarily in prayer (and fasting), and self-control, in regard to:

• Guilt
  
• Pride
  
• Depression
  
• Complaining
  
• Un-Forgiveness
  
• Bitterness
  
• Lust
  
• Wrath/Anger
  
• Discouragement
  
• Doubt
  
• Worry
  

These are the main spiritual battles that must be fought.  And they must be fought primarily in private in order for us to win our natural battles in public.  But what are natural battles?

Natural battles are struggles surrounding the encounters we experience primarily as a result of day-to-day living, that try to stifle, destroy, or distort/warp our:

• Confidence
  
• Humility
  
• Joy
  
• Gratitude
  
• Forgiveness
  
• Sweetness
  
• Love
  
• Peace
  
• Courage
  
• Hope
  
• Faith

Some examples of natural battles are:

• People speaking words against our Faith, Promise, Values
  
• "Interested Parties" encourage us to make more of ourselves than is ethically true
  
• Pressure from outsiders to focus solely on the situation and not the GOD in the situation
  
• We don't get the desired outcome from a situation, relationship, or endeavor
  
• We are painfully hurt, humiliated, or harassed by a person or group of people
  
• We are repeatedly hurt, humiliated or harassed by a person or group of people
  
• An opportunity to have something unethical, immoral, or illegal
  
•  An offer to get something we desire, using unethical, immoral or illegal means
  
• Being attacked with or without cause
  
• Seeming to fail continuously 
  
• All the odds are against you
  

Fight the spiritual battles in the first group when no one but God sees, and when the public battles in the third group arise, He will reward you openly with like characteristics in the second group. (I love riddles!!! ;-)

Make Mondays Matter,
D~

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