In yesterday's reading from Exodus 14: 21-15:1, "the Egyptians sounded the retreat before Israel, because the Lord was fighting for them against the Egyptians." The same is true for us. Enemies may be pursuing us on every side and especially from within our own beings: pride, selfishness, gluttony, idolatry (God substitutes such as compulsive use of alcohol, drugs, food, pleasure, relationships, sex or whatever we use to distract ourselves or as sole means to meet insatiable needs, calm excessive fears, and avoid feeling whatever pain is beckoning us to look at the truth of what is going on in our lives). As with the Israelites, God fights for us as well.
By our use of God substitutes, we are likely to deafen ourselves to God's voice and develop a blindness to God's presence and action in our lives. How do we keep our ears and eyes open? How do we maintain our focus on God, realizing and discovering that God is on our side and that God is enough for us? By calling upon the Holy Spirit or reverently uttering Jesus' name, asking God to help us. It is at those times that Satan sounds his "retreat" from us, because he knows then that the Lord is fighting for us against him in the same way as the Lord fought for the Israelites, His Chosen People.
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