Jordan was not the man Lisa thought she had married. When they first met, she was taken with his spontaneity and good looks. He had a kind of boy-next-door humility and charm that reminded her of her high-school sweetheart. Jordan is a personal trainer, and she met him at the gym where she works out. They dated almost a year before he popped the question, and they got married soon after. Before she met Jordan, Lisa was successful professionally, but unhappy. She had a close-knit group of girlfriends and a very supportive family who constantly consoled and encouraged her. She desperately wanted to be married. Having a family and being a mother and a wife was all she had ever dreamed about, but none of her relationships lasted, and she went through extreme bouts of sadness because of the loneliness.
Lisa was very busy at work one day when Jordan phoned. She told him she didn’t have time to talk, and would call him back. She had no idea that something this simple would cause the barrage of questions she faced when she got home. She just kept thinking that it came out of nowhere, and she couldn’t understand what had gotten into Jordan. In the coming months, it got worse. At first, she overlooked his jealous tendencies, and was a little flattered by them. After a while, he started accusing her of all kinds of things, and her life began to feel like a prison.
Jesus Christ taught us in John 10:10 (NKJV), “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” An abundant life is a life that is filled with love, peace, joy, wholeness, and all the other wonderful blessings that God has made available through Christ. This isn’t just for people who dot all their ‘i’s and cross all their ‘t’s. John 3:16 says that God loved the entire world so much that He gave His only begotten Son as a sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ was needed because humans chose to turn their backs on God and to live in darkness. So when we were at our worse, Christ came to die for us. This is how much the Father loves and cares for us all.
God wants every person to live the greatest life of which they are capable. He wants us to be happy, and not only does He want us to be happy, He’s given us the spiritual accoutrement to acquire the kind of life we desire. Contrary to what many people believe, the devil is real. It is impossible for God to tell a lie, and His Word is true. Heavenly Father has an archenemy, and he is the thief that Jesus Christ talked about in John 10:10. The thief is the devil, and he doesn’t want us to be happy. One of the major ways that the devil destroys our happiness is to keep us blind to his tricks.
God tells us in 1 Peter 5:8 (NKJV), “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” We need to be alert and aware because the devil looks for an opening to come into our lives, and for many women, loneliness and desperation presents just the opportunity he’s looking for.
Being single longer than a person would like can bring on feelings of sadness, but God still expects us to have faith in His provision, no matter how things look. He expects that we will check-in with Him for greenlights and get that all-important “okay to go!” before we give someone access into our lives. When we don’t get an ‘all clear’ from God, we might fall for a tricked-out Boo from the enemy, and that’s not God’s Will for us. It’s not that the guy is so bad, but he may not be seasoned enough in God’s Word to resist being used by the devil against you.
God will help us no matter how bad the situation is, but the best approach is to not get into the situation in the first place. Amping up our prayer lives and understanding what God desires from us is always going to prepare us spiritually. It will help us operate in the gift of discernment, so that we will know a trick when we see it and steer clear.■
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
“A Tricked-Out Boo” written for Overcomingdomesticviolenceorg.wordpress.com. Copyright ©2020. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!
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