The Attack Came Right After the Prayer

A while back, I was struggling with some thoughts that I knew needed to leave my mind and heart. Negativity. Fear. Old hurts. Ruminating thoughts that kept replaying in my head.

So early one morning, I sat down and wrote a prayer.

I asked God for strength, wisdom, and victory over my thought life. I prayed for help replacing negative thoughts with positive ones. I asked Him to remove anything from me that didn’t serve Him and to help me walk in peace, purpose, and faith.

I reminded myself in that prayer that I am loved, victorious, whole, and not defeated.

And then something happened almost immediately.

Both of my radio stations went off the air at the exact same time.

One frequency lost power because of an electrical outage. The other wouldn’t reset remotely, which meant I had to drive 35 miles to the tower site early that morning to get us back on the air.

It would have been easy to panic.
Easy to get frustrated.
Easy to spiral into stress and negativity.

But somewhere in the middle of all of it, I realized something.

Maybe this was my opportunity to apply the very prayer I had just prayed.

Sometimes the attack comes right after the prayer.

Not because God abandoned us.
Not because the prayer didn’t work.
But because life gives us opportunities to practice what we’ve been asking God to build inside of us.

This time, instead of reacting with anger or defeat, I handled it calmly.

Not perfectly.
But differently.

And I know I could only do that because God gave me the strength I had just asked for moments before.

The victory wasn’t that nothing went wrong.

The victory was that I didn’t let the situation control my spirit.

Sometimes spiritual growth doesn’t look dramatic.
Sometimes it looks like staying calm during chaos.
Choosing faith over fear.
Choosing peace over panic.
Choosing gratitude instead of frustration.

I think many of us pray for God to change our lives while hoping we never face a moment that requires us to grow.

But growth often comes disguised as inconvenience.

That morning reminded me that God really does answer prayers — sometimes faster than we expect.

Speak Life. Rise Higher.