One night, Samantha, my two-year-old, work up screaming. I wasn’t feeling very motherly, having just nursed Abby, our infant, an hour earlier. But I stumbled out of bed, and when I opened our heavy ironwood bedroom door, I immediately felt evil – more terror than if an armed intruder had been there. I started to run to Samantha’s room, suddenly noticing a one-dimensional black rectangle hovering sporadically in the corner of our living room as I ran by. Samantha’s screams kept me from freezing in place. I opened her door and she yelled, “My songs!,” which she never asked for because they meant bedtime and she hated to sleep. My brain was frozen and I couldn’t remember how to fight an evil spirit, so I just did what she asked. I started singing our first song, “Jesus Loves Me.” As soon as I said the first word, Jesus, the evil spirit left, not gradually but instantly, no more malicious presence filling the air. About halfway through the song, Samantha fell back asleep, completely at peace, but I was wider awake than I had been since she was born. I finished the song, prayed out loud in Samantha’s room, the living room and in Abby’s room, finally remembering my spiritual warfare. After coming out of Abby’s room I felt such peace that I went right to sleep without waking my husband, the song “Strong Tower” playing in my head. God is so faithful and personal. He knew our silly little nighttime routine so well that He could speak to Samantha’s heart so she would ask for her songs, making the first word out of my mouth Jesus, the only solution! A few weeks later, a college student sent photos from her visit with us. There were several of a village trip, and in one Samantha was touching a rectangular box filled with bones in the village cemetary. I immediately recognized the box as the same one I saw in our living room. A week later was the first time Abby was hospitalized with a life-threatening illness, and stressors and hardships of all kinds seemed to grow in intensity and volume. God allowed me to feel evil, then showed me that He would provide what I would need as well as fight my battles for me. He showed me the power of His Name, and the enemy did flee. God is faithful, even when we are terrified, and the best we can do is show up.

2 Thessalonians 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.