Do you ever feel you just can't win against Satan?

[Gospel]

Boy do I know how you feel. It is almost like I have written this post myself. I am struggling against a great many things in my life. I also think that I have not accomplished what God has set out for me to do.

I forget who said it earlier in this post, but I like the idea that we can re-start our spiritual lives at anytime. Jesus only needed three years to do the Fathers will. What can I accomplish in three years? Can I turn my life around? What kind of saint could I be if I let God do radical surgery on the parts of me that need cut out and healed? What stoips me? Simple- PAIN. The question for me is, am I willing to go through the pain? Am I willing to die to myself to come closer to God. Am I willing to detach myself from all the baggage that I carry? Am I willing to give control to God to direct me life?

It can be very scary. My problem is that I do not know where to start. I wish there was a life “makeover Plan”. My life definitely needs a makeover. From my finances, to the discipline, to my relationships with my friends and family.

I start to read the scriptures and I wonder wher I should start. Presently I am reading through the wisdom books. They have simple every day wisdom in them. Proverbs and Sirach are the greatest in my book. You may want to check them out.

 

[distracted]

What kind of saint could I be if I let God do radical surgery on the parts of me that need cut out and healed? What stoips me? Simple- PAIN. The question for me is, am I willing to go through the pain? Am I willing to die to myself to come closer to God. Am I willing to detach myself from all the baggage that I carry? Am I willing to give control to God to direct me life?

And i could have written these words. I also try to avoid such pain… coming out of my comfort zone… and yet, i also feelthat the cross i bear is the one i am meant to bear… Long story why i say that… I mean, if u ask God what he wants and you end up on a big cross… well, maybe that’s what he wanted, for whatever reasons he has… I mean, he allowed the Cross for his son… Who are we that we shouldn’t also have a heavy cross? and through this cross, i… well, i learn things aabout God.
I pray you offer up your sufferings (as to not knowing exactly what God wants) for the expiation of past sins and also fro the souls in Purgatory… I don’t always remember to do that… but when i do, it is very powerful…
I can feelthe pain in the words you write… I wish i could give you an “answer” but as you know from reading my post, i am in the same predicament… At least when u r Catholic, you can offer your sins up and get some meaning out of them… Thanks so much. God bless.

 

[distracted]

My take on the topic such as, “Losers Anonymous” sounds more like “Self-Pity Anonymous.”

I do feel sorry for myself sometimes… and why shouldn’t I?
I am a human being… nuf said…

 

[Wolseley]

Well, lately I’ve become pretty well convinced that I’m under some sort of attack…

It all began this last May, when we took the car in for a brake job. They found out the ball joints needed to be replaced as well. $500.00 plus.

In June, our dog got hurt very badly; trip to the emergency animal hospital, $740.00.

In July, the alternator died in the car, leaving me high and dry. Walked two miles (in flip flops, moan) to call home for help. $300.00 plus to get that fixed, plus another $500.00 to resurrect my old truck from the dead and make it roadworthy so my wife had something to drive to work.

In August, I made a trip to the ER with a hideous headache, vomiting, extreme dizziness; they ruled out a brain aneurysm and diganosed it as an extreme migraine. $1500.00.

And this last Saturday, my wife and son were in a car accident; a sixteen-year old girl pulled out in front of them without looking where she was going, and my wife slammed on the brakes but was unable to avoid hitting the girl’s car. Totalled our car (so much for brakes, ball joints, and alternator), and my wife ended up being strapped to a back brace and transported to the ER in an ambulance. My son got a sprained ankle; my wife, only bruises and contusions, thanks be to God—if neither of them had been wearing seat belts, they both would have been killed. Heaven only knows how much that’ll all cost, but I would guesstimate at the very least $3000.00.

No, we don’t have insurance.

And, last but not least, last night my wife stopped for gas with my old truck, and it died on her. Probably the fuel pump. So now she has no way to get back and forth to work, and we also have no vehicle to even get groceries with, get to church with, or anything else.

Do I ever feel like I can’t win? You bet your sweet potato I do.

 

[distracted]

Wow - I thought I was being attacked!! :hypno:

I have come to a conclusion about “bad luck”:
It happens to two kinds of people: those who are not living right and those who are…
and no, i am not really kidding…
Anyway, you are right to say this is an attack from the devil. Sometimes (I believe) God allows the devil to attack us and i think i have figured out why(???). Sometimes I think it is to test our faith… If you are anything like me, you feel you don’t need such a test… thank you.
Sometimes, i believe, it is because there is some sin in our lives that he wants us to confront & get purified of… We don’t always see our impurities very well. I know because i sometimes think i am doing fine (no mortal sins, etc.), but then i spend time with Jesus @ the Blessed Sacrament and begin to see things i didn’t see b4… or didn’t see w/ much clarity…
I don’t know which one of these is the reason for your misfortunes (and/or some other reason??). All i know is that you NEED PRAYER!!
I can do that… I really feel for you. I went through an ordeal some time ago that I should have documented the details of because w/o documentation, i felt no one would ever believe so many things could go wrong with such a (normally) straightforward project… Now that its over, i don’t want to write about it in my journal because I don’t want to re-live it…
Anyway… I learned and grew through thewhole thing and i guess that’s what counts. At least there is one good thing about having so many misadventures… it makes us detach more from the things of this world… even as we are forced to be involved in those things… It causes us (me anyway) to desire even more to be with the Lord in Heaven, where no cars break down… and our bodies don’t either…
At least you have people to go through all this with. I have no human being to talk to, really, to speak of… My best friend died a couple weeks ago… I sometimes want to follow him… (he was a devout Catholic).
You are definitely in my prayers. God bless.

 

[distracted]

I don’t feel like I can’t win against satan; I know that I can’t win against satan.
But I also know Who can win!!

God bless.

For sure… If we could win against Satan in our own power, Jesus wouldn’t have had to pay the price on the Cross…

 

[Hlafdige]

Sometimes there‘s just no quick way out of what we are and where we are. Fortunately God has a way in to us: Those who directed you to the Blessed Sacrament were spot on.

„Now shall all who defy you be disappointed and put to shame; all who set themselves against you shall be as nothing; they shall vanish. You will look for your assailants but not find them; all who take up arms against you shall be as nothing, nothing at all. For I, the Lord your God, take you by the right hand; I say to you, do not fear; it is I who help you, fear not, Jacob you worm and Israel poor louse. It is I who help you, says the Lord, your ransomer, the Holy One of Israel. See, I will make of you a sharp threshing-sledge, new and studded with teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them and reduce the hills to chaff; you shall winnow them, the wind shall carry them away, and a great gale shall scatter them. Then shall you rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel.“ (Isaiah 41:11-16)

 

[Wolseley]

I thank you for the prayers, distracted; I can use all the help I can get right now.

Rest assured I am praying for you, too. Prayer, at least, is still free.

 

[distracted]

Sometimes there‘s just no quick way out of what we are and where we are. Fortunately God has a way in to us: Those who directed you to the Blessed Sacrament were spot on.
)

Thank you so much for writing out this Scripture passage… I was so blessed in reading it.

God bless…

 

[distracted]

I thank you for the prayers, distracted; I can use all the help I can get right now.

Rest assured I am praying for you, too. Prayer, at least, is still free.

Thank you. Maybe it is your prayers that have caused the devil to leave me alone (somewhat). He never leaves us alone completely, in this life… but at least, well, at least i got through the aforementioned Hell on Earth… (it too had to do with vehicles!!!).

God bless…