The Stratagem Devotional: Overcoming Spiritual Warfare Within Your Holy Union

By Shawn Galloway

The Stratagem Devotional: Overcoming Spiritual Warfare Within Your Holy Union is a powerful and insightful guide for couples who are facing challenges in their marriage as a result of spiritual warfare. This devotional offers practical strategies and biblical wisdom to help couples overcome the spiritual attacks that can threaten the unity and s

• Language: English
• Publisher: Unions
• Release date: Apr 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869310682

Book preview

PREFACE

When writing this, I struggled and prayed for several months when my wife and I were told by several church leaders that we had to write a devotional for couples. The idea seemed insurmountable. Here I was, far from the picture of even an ideal believer, with my wife as a woman embodying the biblical wife. How was I, a man whose walk was not perfect or even close to Christlike as much as I would like it to be, supposed to come to this task? I prayed, and like we all do, kept going back and questioning God's plan that he had laid out. I would rephrase the question and ask it in an unusual way. We think we are slick by doing this, but all we do is play God when we question his laid-out purpose.

My story is filled with personal battles—depression, anger, whispers of temptation, and encounters with an old enemy. While we believe we're equipped to fight, we often falter, giving in to the whispers. The enemy understands us, knows our vulnerabilities, and engages in psychological warfare. God and His son counteract, saving us. There are moments when we feel alone, even in marriage, as we become caught up in today's world.

As the enemy knows I can falter, while writing this, I had to come to grips not only with putting to bed bad thoughts but also with digging up laid-to-rest thoughts and skeletons to do battle once more. He struck at my core, feeding on my old addiction to porn, my anger, and my weakness in mental health. There were nights without sleep and days of yelling and fighting with my wife because I couldn't articulate what was going on in my mind without her thinking I was some crazy patient. When God calls us to transform and be fully in His works, he wants us to lay bare everything at the cross. Good works are not without sacrifice, a truth familiar to me as a soldier who knows that sacrifices are made for the benefit of the mission.

I prayed to