Know Your Enemy

Here's another Lion and Lamb Publications' 'Microburst' by DaNella J. Auten. I have got to tell you, this little devotional is very good. Just like she applies these 'Microbursts' to her life, you get to use them in yours. I read this one and immediately saw the application to my life right now where God has me.
The title is 'Know Your Enemy':
"Cabbage palm trees grow stealthily. You think they are grass, so you mow them down and keep mowing the little fronds thinking you are just mowing grass. Then when the actual tree begins to stalk out, you have to mow around it and let it grow or excavate it.- Excavate: to dig a lot around an object in order to extract all of an object or objects.
The palm tree is like a little sin; you think it isn't a problem; it is so small, so you ignore it, but then it grows, and grows, and grows. Before long, it is an actual tree of sin growing deep within us. No longer just a tiny sin; now it has become so large that it will take a major life change for us to get rid of it. Satan knows how to fool us; he knows we would reject an outright sin, so he sends a sneaky sin instead.
Just as God is a personal God, satan is a personal satan; he adapts to us far too quickly. We need to be aware of our areas of weakness because that is where satan is going to attack us.
Romans 7:21 So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands. (Amplified Bible)
This fits where I was, how I got there, and now what I need to do. Satan had me fooled for about two in a half years. I bought into his lies to ignore a problem in my marriage. (Ignore a problem it will go away, right?) The problem remained and it was so easy to just check out that it became a lifestyle. I ignored responsibilities and the Holy Spirit. Well I already told my turn around a while back. I knew things had to change and I was forcing the issue by begging God, going to a few friends for prayer, and doing every little thing I believed the Spirit was telling me. The turn around was quick. Within two weeks I was reconnected with God, walking upright, and seeing answers to prayer. It was and is amazing!!
Life goes on and God has new things that need changing in my life. I hadn't heard any specifics from God in a while. I met up with a new friend and we connected just like the first time we talked. God gave him a word to share with me that he was afraid to give because it was correction. God won. He gave it and it was so perfect and delivered in such a loving way that it didn't even seem corrective. I pondered that word all night and God just starting pouring out all kinds of stuff I needed to change in my marriage and for my marriage. I had ignored my wife's needs and concentrated on my own for so long that I was blind to my error. I had let satan win in my weakness and every attempt I made to change, he threw out his best to stop it. His attacks kept me in my lowly state and the way out was too high to climb out of. That 'cabbage palm tree' that looked so innocent was easier to ignore then deal with it. I let it grow and take root in my life until it needed a major life change to excavate it. That is my current position in life...uprooting that thing. I realize the difficult process and know there will be pain and heartache but it has to be done. I cannot prune it, stop watering it, chop it down (leaving a stump to grow back), or mow around it while not paying it any attention. I have to remove it totally. I know it is too hard to do in my own flesh. I already tried remember? I just don't like pain of any kind. That is why I put another all alert out to a few good Christians out there to hold me up in prayer. I can only get this 'tree'(sinful lifestyle) out of my soil (soul) through God and the prayers of the saints. I lie weak and humbled before God and all of you so I can be lifted up once again. God is so good. 16 years of marriage and we are still growing together. Our faith may waver but now we know our enemy and its not each other. Our attack will be against the real enemy and with the power in the prayers we say and have surrounding us, victory will be ours. Amen!! If you pray lift up my marriage and pray for motivation for me to stay on course and continue to seek Him.