Time with God

I have been really trying to spend more time in my Bible and doing devotions this year and at times I have been better than others.  My family recently started attending a church in our community that we visited a few years back and now we are trying to connect again.  The recent series was about "Giving 10" by simply starting with giving at least 10 minutes a day to really reading your Bible.   I thought I was pretty consistent, but I realized that I was doing as much as I wanted.  I also really like doing devotions and I recently started this one above.  It is really life changing for me because it is written in the first person and reads as Jesus is talking to me directly.  That has really brought it to life more for me.   I finally realized today that many of the challenges I have faced in the last couple of weeks are what I feel are Satan trying to keep me away from all of this.  I have had countless things happen and the worst was an incident today that finally opened my eyes and made me realize that I am human and I am going to do human things at time and I need to continue pressing on with my devotions and Bible reading as it is making me stronger.  Tonight I attended a ladies Bible study on a Wednesday night for the first time in years.  I almost didn't go because my husband was working and I didn't want it to look bad at a new church that it was just me and my son.  I finally realized that was exactly what Satan had been beating me down about all week keeping me out of God's house with God's people.  I actually stopped at the door to the church and said quietly to myself, "take that Devil!"   Does that sound crazy???   I just really felt like all the stuff that has been happening has been because I was being tested and I felt so much better after the study because I met some new people and I was brave enough to walk in there and feel the presence of the Holy Spirit lift me up and make me feel so comfortable that I had won the battle.  Tomorrow is a new battle and I will continue to arm myself with God's word.  Pray for me if you will.