The enemy is always on guard, looking for times we are at our most vulnerable to launch his attack and get us doubting, discouraged and discontent. Don’t you wish you had advance notice of the attack so you could be prepared to lean in even closer to Jesus and put that armor of God on faster? Yep, me too. Recently in a sermon by Dr. Charles Stanley on the In Touch Ministries podcast, I discovered a simple formula to know when the enemy may be on the hunt. The acronym is HALT – simple to remember, simple to apply:
H – hungry
A – angry
L – lonely
T – tired
As an entrepreneur, I get to make my own schedule. That sounds awesome, right? Except that I tend to fill white space on my calendar that God intends for me to keep open (anyone else have this problem?), and that can leave me feeling, well, all of the above. For example, a few months back, I spent 3 amazing days at the Proverbs 31 She Speaks Conference. I returned home on a Sunday morning, then left the next day for consulting client meetings in San Diego, and returned home again 3 days later. That morning at the airport I was so tired I could have cried – which in fact, I did. Had a big pity party for myself in the bathroom over my apparent failure as a wife, mom, business owner, and even child of God. What the what? No apparent reason…but oh yeah, the enemy was devouring me that morning!
The thing is, I absolutely love what I do and I absolutely love that God has blessed me with a multi-faceted entrepreneur life through which I get to pursue success His way. So you would think I could see the enemy’s attack coming a mile away, right? Nope. Even when its me in charge of my schedule, getting to choose where I go, how I work and with whom I work, I easily over estimate the time I have and underestimate the energy it can take. In this case, I knew the back to back travel would be tiring, but I don’t often do it that way, so I “knew” I could handle it. On this particular day though, it seemed the enemy was just waiting for me to hit a wall – that morning I was hungry (I hadn’t had my protein shake yet), angry (who had scheduled this crazy trip anyway? Um…), lonely (being an entrepreneur can sometimes be), and definitely tired.
When we’re experiencing any of these, we’re especially vulnerable to attack. In those moments when we’re feeling like “Lord, how’s this going to work out…what about this…what about that?” let’s remember HALT and ask ourselves if we’re hungry, angry, lonely or tired. Then remember we have the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us, and with that, we can overcome the attack! Because our Lord and Savior has already claimed victory for us, and when we’re walking in His will, hustling with heart as we pursue success His way, we can trust He is working it all together for our good and His glory.
