Last night something weird happened.
Everyone was in bed except me. I’d just finished enjoying a movie in the basement and flicked off the lights when it hit: An unsettled feeling.
Hmmm. What is this, Lord? I thought of Noah, our oldest. Felt a twinge of alarm for him. Like something bad was about to happen. I even wrote it in my journal (a good idea, so you can come back to it later).
What’s going on, Lord? The sense of dread (not exactly fear, just dread) mounted. Then fear did hit — images of Noah’s bus crashing and killing him today on his first day of school. When fear hits, that’s the enemy at work, so I began to pray, standing with the Lord Jesus within me between the forces of Satan and my family. Inviting the Lord’s peace and rule to be expressed in our home. Gently insisting that any dark forces depart and release us from their grip.
Next, I came back to the bus image. Because if, after dealing with the enemy, I still had a nagging dread, I would have asked the Lord about that. Should I drive Noah to school tomorrow? I ask.
No, I sense the Lord saying, and with that, the dread lifts.
Now, I’m not exactly sure what happened there. There are a couple of options:
1. I imagined the whole thing (though I’m not a fearful or pessimistic person at all).
2. It was just a fearmongering tactic of Satan.
3. God was inviting me into a scheme of the enemy and partnering with me to foil it.
I’m leaning toward #3. I think my prayers actually thwarted something (we’ll see after school, I suppose. But I’m at peace with that). I also know the enemy was there with me, stirring up fear. But the bottom line is that as I listened to God’s voice and depended on his presence, I felt his touch and the dark moments passed. Praise God.