So much preparation, so much good preparation. I can see the Lord at work in many things: me for college, the appeal for my little sister, the youth group for camp, J.D. and Christy for Africa, and other things.

Today I was so darn tempted that I was sweating. I have never fought so hard against temptation. I know it was the Holy Spirit that helped me sweat it out. I feel like I have been empowered with brute spiritual aggression.

During the temptation, I prayed and opened up my bible to Judges chapter two. At the end of the chapter it talked about how after Joshua's death the Israelites quit pushing the Canaanites out of the land that God had promised to them and they fell into sin. God tested them to see if they would keep fighting off the Canaanites on their own, but they failed. After this, God quit helping them whenever they tried to fight again, in fact, he worked against them. God never allowed them to claim all of their entitled land because of their disobedience. Eventually, God appointed twelve different judges to be leaders and heroes of the Israelites. During their reign, the people of Israel were obedient to God, but whenever the current judge died, the Israelites descended even deeper into the sin they were in before.

To me, Joshua's reign is the time of my salvation, the Canaanites are sins, the promised land is righteousness, and the judges are times of the Lord's blessings upon me. I don't want to fail the Lord's test, I want to fight even during the in-between judges times when the Lord disciplines me. I want to push the canaanites out of my life so I can have full proprietorship over the promised land.

This was the perfect scripture to read to fight off my temptation. I felt really good to have passed my test today. I think this was the hardest temptation I have ever successfully overcame. All I had to do was pray for a few minutes and the Lord said boom all over my problem and advanced me further into the promised land. There are going to be many more tests and there are still myriads of Canaanites that occupy my promised land. They're gettin' the heck out in Jesus' name.