two more thoughts on spiritual warfare

This morning, a group of us went to a friend's house to anoint it with oil and to pray the power of God over external demonic influences in that home.

Two things of interest:

In economics, we frequently talk about "opportunity costs"-- in our choice to use resource X in a certain way, we forsake all other uses of X at that point of time, and in particular, forfeiting the value of the next-best alternative. Applied to spiritual warfare, we asked the demon(s) to leave the home this morning-- and in essence, encouraged them to move on to their second-best alternative. It occurred to me that we should always pray for their next destination-- and their eventual destination.

I was struck by the husband's discussion of the shower-- and one girl's fear of it. The shower should be a place of refreshment, solitude, cleansing, enjoyment, etc. But it also a place of vulnerability and nakedness. In addition to praying that the shower would be a good place rather than a bad place, I prayed that baggage from those experiences-- e.g., in the sexual arena-- would be taken away.

May God bless that home-- as they continue to bless Him and others. May God grant them courage and wisdom as they raise their children.