The End Zone by Kylie Davis

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10

"This world is the end zone, the trials, the hardships, the sorrows, the desperation of hitting our knees more than we stand. Its gruesome, we are constantly tackled and it hurts. The pads to make our hits a little easier to bare are something that grows with faith. Each time we are hit, we bruise, but each time we stand up we gain a pad. The end result, to be fully padded in a defiant end zone, with multiple linebackers racing towards you. When you can look at the thousand pounds of muscle coming toward you and fear nothing, brush off the hit that is coming, and look up for God to supply the landing, you are on your way because the devil has no field to play."
Quote by K. Davis
You are strong and courageous and nothing can hold you down. The devil knows that you are an amazing and remarkable person of strength and that aggravates him to no end. He wants you question why, crawl on your knees, wonder what will hit you next. He wants you to doubt Gods love, reject Gods timing, run from Gods plan, but you don't. That infuriates the devil all over again. He throws punch after punch and believe me I feel them every single day, over and over until you feel like you have been beaten beyond recognition. The devil spits at our faith, he tries to drown it with sorrow, worry, doubt and fear. See the thing about amazing and strong Christian people is we are always going through something, and the ones who are not so close to God will say, "you just never get a break do you." They are exactly right, we never get a break and do you know why we never get a break??? Because we are close knit followers of Gods amazing words and wisdom and because that makes the devil sooooo angry, he NEVER leaves us alone. The friends that are not so close to God do not seem to understand this thinking because they go through a hard time here and there and never fully recover to the faith level you are at. See the devil picks on us a lot more than he does the others because he is so angry that we are constantly reaching towards God. The devil wants us to give up, throw in our towel and go home. But you and I cannot do that, why? Because we are molded in Gods words, His wisdom, His strength and His glory. He leads us and when the devil jumps in front of God's word, God allows us to go through the moment to make us stronger, not because he "wants" to hurt us, but because he knows that we will cry out for Gods mercy and glory, and he is already there. The trials and tribulations help to strengthen our wings to be able to carry the multitude of struggling Christians as we fly to our eternal home. See the way I look at it is there are people like us who believe in God, follow His word, focus on His plan, and rely on others who practice His word daily. When it is our time to go with God, there are going to be those who are scared, uncertain and feeling like they have waited too late. With our Godly strength and constant uplifting words to other Christians, God is going to need us to put on our wings and carry those who are lost.

We have to be willing to see our life as it is in the moment, and only the moment. You hear people say all the time we are not guaranteed tomorrow, and I believe the "true" meaning behind that statement is not because we may die today, but because every single moment is different when you are a Christian. The devil may hit you with a challenge every single minute for a day, leave you alone for three days and come right back when your faith is renewed. See the devil comes and he goes, but not God, no God is always there, always waiting to carry you through the sand when your feet get too hot. The devil comes back time and time again hoping you will say forget it, I am not strong, I give up. Once you give up, the devil has won and you will then go weeks, months, maybe years without any pain, but what will you have been missing the entire time? Gods amazing strength, love, guidance and ability to overshadow every single storm you ever run into.

The pain is deep, the nerves are tested beyond belief and most of the time, the best way to tell if it is the devil that is messing with you, look at the situation, is it something you can control? Is it something you can easily fix? Is it something that you can easily change or make it go away? NO, it's not something you had or have any control over, it's not something you can mend, change or fix, and it will probably take so much effort on your part to even think it could ever go away. See how the devil works, he hits us over and over, but not with things we can fix, because if we could fix them, we would do so and move on and never think twice, but when he makes things so hard that we see no way out, it knocks us completely off track, and when we are off track, we feel overwhelmed. When we are overwhelmed we feel weak. When we are weak we feel vulnerable. When we are vulnerable, we do stupid things. When we do stupid things, we fall right into the devils plan and he has won. It's a vicious cycle and it never ends.

God could stop it, yes he could, but would you grow deeper in faith?
Would you continuously look towards Gods amazing love and strength for support?
Would you reach out to other uplifting Godly Christians?
Would you worry so much about being faithful to God?

No, you would let your own motives guide your path and we as sinners are led by the devil when we don't throw on the most uncomfortable jacket, the jacket of God's love and protection. It is rough, like wool to your bare skin, and it is not something we enjoy (trials and tribulations), but after a while the jacket becomes lighter and lighter as we become stronger and stronger and eventually we have no idea we are wearing it, but everyone can still see it. You want to get your life to the point where no matter what happens you praise God, no matter how big the storm is you praise God, no matter how tough the situation may seem, you praise God. Sometimes it may seem so crazy to praise god for some of the things we go through, but if you are still strong in the midst of a storm, you realize God is in control of every single situation. Even if God did not send the storm, he can throw it back to the seas, a lot harder than the way it came in, but you have to have the faith to shake the storm.

Nine times out of ten, the devil tries to triumph us financially, physically or emotionally. The three things he knows hold a valuable spot in our lives. Our wallets, our bodies and our hearts. See the devil can bring me whatever he wants to bring, throw it at me, I am ready! I know that I will crumble, I am a sinner, but I will stand back up and that is what holds me different from a non-practicing Christian. I may fall, even Jesus fell, but I will stand again, I will walk tall, I will praise God during the storm, reach out for prayer and rise again. The situation will always seem less of an attack if you hit it straight back in the gut. Scream out loud, "devil you got something for me? Really??? Cause I have got something for you Mr. Deliverance and I will knock your butt out of this situation once and for all." If you stand up to the bully, the bully will eventually realize you have muscles equipped to knock the fire even out of the biggest attacker of all the devil himself.

So you stand back up in the end zone, you spread your legs about shoulders width apart, bend at the knees and put your hands up, telling the most difficult situation to come on, bring me what you got.
And you know in the back of your mind, to the side of your heart and the pit of your soul, that God lives there, loves you and will give you all the pads you need to brush off the pains of today with tomorrows muscles.

You are strong, you can withstand anything that comes at you! Thank God for the trials, remember before the trials, the fears, the worries, God knew us before we knew ourselves and he gave us extra blessing ahead of time. The blessings were instilled in you before the pain, so no matter how much pain you endure, it can never affect the blessings that God has already instilled in you.