Things They Don't Tell You When You Follow God Closely — Your Old Life Will Try to Come Back

This is post 5 in Things They Don't Tell You When You Follow God Closely, a weekly Sunday series from Alpha VI Battalion.

They Did Not Tell You the Old Life Would Fight for You

You made the decision. You turned around. You committed to walking in a different direction. And for a while the momentum of that decision carried you and everything felt possible.

Then the old life knocked.

Not always loudly. Sometimes it is a thought that sounds like your own voice. Sometimes it is a familiar face with an old invitation. Sometimes it is a circumstance that makes the old way look like the practical way and the new way look naive. However it arrives, it arrives. And it arrives specifically for you because it knows exactly what you respond to.

The Enemy Is Not Creative. He Is Specific.

The temptation that comes back is not random. It is targeted. It is the specific thing that worked before. The specific relationship that created the specific weakness. The specific habit that the specific pressure triggers. Whoever or whatever is working against your growth studied you before you started growing and comes back with exactly the right bait.

This is not reason for fear. It is reason for awareness. You cannot resist what you do not recognize. Naming the pattern is the first step to breaking it.

The Knock Gets Louder When You Get Closer

The closer you move toward what God has for you the more aggressive the pull of the old life becomes. This feels counterintuitive. You expect that growth would make the temptation weaker. Sometimes it does. But sometimes the intensity of the opposition is a signal that you are close to something significant enough to fight for.

The enemy does not waste ammunition on people who are not going anywhere. The increased pressure is sometimes confirmation that you are moving in exactly the right direction.

You Do Not Have to Open the Door

The knock is not an obligation. A door that knocks does not have to be answered. You are allowed to recognize it, name it, and walk away from it without engaging. The mistake most people make is opening the door to see who it is as if curiosity is neutral. It is not. Engagement is the beginning of compromise even when it does not feel like it yet.

Do not open the door. Walk toward the thing God has ahead instead. The old life cannot follow you into the new one if you refuse to stop long enough to let it catch up.

Stay in it, Light Bringer.

Continue Reading in This Series

Previous: The Waiting Is Part of the Assignment

Next: Faith Does Not Make You Immune to Pain

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