Stand Firm, Sleep Soundly, My Friend

I just received a call from a scared, desperate young mother. She had been feeling a Satanic attach since last night and was desperate for help.
This is not any woman. She has a young daughter dying of an incurable disease. They are waiting for a bone marrow transplant to be performed as an experimental procedure in homes of stopping the rapidly progressing disease. I will call her Sara to protect her privacy.
Sara has a renewed relationship with the Lord after living a hard life in the world. As her daughter has drawn closer to God and has a faith far beyond her years, Sara has also had a radical life change; finding faith, strength and peace like she never dreamed.
But last night was different. Satan attacked and she was battling a fierce battle with fear. Not just fear for her daughter but a sense of impending doom that could not be shaken. She had gone to the Word all night and could not break the darkness. She needed verses to turn to for strength and relief.
Sara felt God telling her to call me. I knew exactly what she was going through. The first time fear paralyzed me was during the war in Zambia when I was a junior in high school. I still remember it vividly. That fear has attacked only a handful of times but it is always the same. The only way to make it go away was by demanding, repeatedly, in the name of Jesus, that Satan depart.
Sara and I talked about putting on the armor of God; every piece. How we can only stand firm in the faith after we have put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation. How fear and Satan’s attacks cannot penetrate if we have on the armor of God because ‘greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world’. I prayed for her and I will pray all night; for peace and a departure of fear.
I remembered a friend who wrote a blog about two friends who were genuine warriors. Her last sentence read, “They don’t have to remember every day to put on the armor of God. They sleep with it on.”
Tonight Sara is going to bed with her armor on. I’m praying she will remain steadfast, stand firm, and sleep soundly.