Marriage from A to Z

“Six D’s that will Damage You”

     No matter what relationship you enter, YOU are the common denominator.  Some of the challenges that we have in marriage and other relationships are because of who we are.  If we allow the enemy to win in various areas of our lives, we will not be the best person that we can be in a relationship.  We really need to be a healthy individual so that we can experience healthy relationships.  One of the tricks of the enemy is to attack us with the Six D’s.

Have you been attacked with any of the D’s lately?  Adam and Eve were attacked with the D’s in Genesis Chapter 3.  In this chapter the enemy is referred to as the serpent.  The Bible says, “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.”  He is very good at using the six D’s to damage us and therefore affecting our relationship with God, our spouse, our children, etc.

Let’s take a look at the six D’s that can damage us. 

1. Doubt:  To doubt is to be uncertain about God and to question His Word, His goodness, His will and His ways.  The enemy wants us to walk around in fear and doubt.  God wants us to trust Him.
2. Discouragement:  To be discouraged is to be deprived of courage, hope or confidence.  The enemy wants us to put so much focus on our problems that we take our eyes off of God.  We become overwhelmed and forget that nothing is too hard for God.
3. Diversion: To be diverted is to be drawn off to a different course or purpose.  The enemy will make wrong things seem attractive so that you will want them more than the right things.  I have seen him do this so many times in marriages.  He will make a husband leave his wife and kids and make another woman seem so attractive.  Another thing that the enemy will do is, make the ways of this world so appealing that one can easily turn away from God.
4. Defeat:  To be defeated is to be frustrated or to have a setback that makes you feel like a failure.  The enemy wants you to feel so low that you don’t even try.
5. Delay:  To delay is to put off to a later time, to postpone and therefore hinder the process or progress.    Think about the things that we put off and never get done. The enemy loves when we postpone something that God wants us to do promptly.
6. Disobedience: To disobey is to sin and simply not do what God has told us to do. Eve knew that she was not supposed to eat the fruit from the tree. She did it any way and to top that off, she shared it with her husband.  The enemy loves when we disobey and then invite others to join us.  God loves when we obey and encourage others to do the same!

If the enemy gets us stuck in any of these areas, it will damage us and our relationships.  Know that God has given us the power to win!  You can WIN!

Until next week . . .

Carolyn