Have you ever heard someone say “You’re testing me”. “You’re testing my nerves.” “The devil is testing me.”? I have heard it all my life…and probably said it a few times too.

Isn’t it just the way when you commit yourself to reading your Bible more, serving more, praying more…the devil jumps on your back. It’s like he gets an alert that says…”She just picked up her Bible…she’s really ramping up her prayer life…she’s working on new ways to serve God in her life and community!” And then he immediately goes into action to tear your attention away from those things, to divert you to a problem that is frustrating. To take your eyes off of God.

That happened to me this week. On Monday I started my day by reading the Bible. I was picking up the scripture in Romans where our pastor had read from the day before (our first Sunday back in church since Covid). I walked out the door and drove to work thinking this is going to be a good day.

And then when I opened up my phone and started to post on Facebook, it was gone. Poof. Like literally as if it was never there. My account had been disabled. A screen popped up that instructed me to submit an appeal. Which I did which then resulted in a screen basically saying…”We don’t have as many people working right now due to Covid so we may not be able to review your appeal. Sorry.”

All kinds of frustration started rising up in me. All of personal photos and videos over the years were on that page. It is tied to my Grateful Girl Facebook page, which I now could not post to. Years of memories were on that account. I know. In the scheme of things that are going on in the world today, my Facebook account isn’t a big thing. But it was important to me and for no reason that I could think of, it was gone.

But you know what? I immediately thought…oh no devil…you are not going to get me going this easily. So I just prayed. Lord…I know that whatever is important to me is important to you and I ask for your help. Most importantly I rebuke the devil’s attempt to take away my joy and to take away my focus on YOU. Whether I get this account back or not….I will not be mad or distracted.

And then I went about my day. I prayed throughout the day. I held a zoom call with area women to plan an awesome women’s event for community. And the sun came up this morning.

I still don’t have my account back. Maybe I won’t ever have it back. But I can start again and for that day I won. I won against distraction and frustration. I won in keeping my eyes and my thoughts on God.

Even in the small things… when things happen that disrupt our days… He cares and he hears our prayers. And we can make a choice to not allow the devil to ruin our day. Just stop in the midst of it and say a quick prayer. It will calm you and reset your emotions and your focus.

We will all be tested. Probably daily. But we don’t have to fail the test.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4 ESV /