Strongholds. Vanessa Davis Griggs
he said, and squeezed her hand three more times.
“Baby-cakes?” Desiree had said with a smile, then a slight blush. My very own pet name. “I love you too, Edwin.”
Desiree knew as they stood at the altar that Edwin was saying he loved her. It had been such a long time since he’d said it or used their special signal. It had been two days since they’d discussed their own strongholds. Edwin seemed to be struggling big time.
“You know my stronghold is gambling, don’t you?” Edwin had said on their way back home from church. “But I felt something on the inside of me caused me to get up.”
“I thought it was me pulling you up,” Desiree said.
“No, there was this feeling down deep that was gently nudging me to get up and go forward. You know I haven’t been to church in a good while. And when I have gone, I rarely ever went to the altar, even for general prayer. I especially wouldn’t have ever gone while visiting a church I’d never been to before.”
“What did you think of Pastor Landris?”
“He’s definitely different. I don’t know. I can’t help but wonder what kind of a scam he’s running, though. You know how I feel about preachers these days. Still, that prayer he prayed was pretty powerful. I felt something similar to electricity surge through my body when he touched my head with his hand.”
Desiree looked at Edwin. “I suppose we’ll have to see if anything happens for either of us,” she said.
It was now Tuesday night and Edwin hadn’t gone to the race track yet. That was a miracle in itself. Desiree had no way of telling whether he was changing or just forcing himself to stay away from the track. Either way, she was thankful. Yet, she could see he was definitely struggling with being at home instead of out gambling.
Edwin’s mind did wander every now and then to the track. The handout Pastor Landris had given all of them said to cast down imaginations. Whenever a wrong thought or an image came to his mind, he would divert his attention elsewhere. The past two days had truly been a wrestling match for him. And he now knew for sure that gambling had a stronghold on him. Pastor Landris had emphasized how God gave them dominion over everything and it was not the other way around. He had to be strong. However, he understood it was not through his own might, but through God’s might that he would be victorious.
“Baby-cakes, where’s the Bible?” Edwin asked around eight o’clock that night. He and Desiree had both signed up for the Deliverance support group. They would be meeting for the first time tomorrow night. He just needed to make it through one more night. On Wednesday, he could look forward to getting some reinforcement from the Bible study to cope with these strong feelings he was having.
Desiree went and got her Bible. “You’re going to read the Bible?” she asked. A sound of shock, although she seemed to be trying to mask it, laced her voice.
“Yeah. I’m working on that ‘bringing every thought into captivity’ part. Our handout said that God has thoughts in the Bible I can direct my mind to instead of what I usually think about. I figure the worse case scenario will be that while I’m reading, I end up falling asleep. Either way works for me.”
Desiree laughed. “You know you need to stop.”
“Desiree, now you know reading the Bible can put you to sleep, so don’t even try fronting with me. I’ve come home late many a night and found your Bible resting on your chest and you knocked out and calling hogs,” Edwin said with a grin as he referred to her snoring. “Let’s see now. How should I do this? Open the Bible to a page and see what page decides to speak to me, or be more methodical about it?”
He closed his eyes and said a quick prayer, then turned the Bible to Proverbs, the first chapter. “Thirty-one chapters, one chapter a night, and according to the handout, it takes twenty-one days to break a habit. I figure by the time I finish reading the book of Proverbs, I should be done with my gambling problem. My only real concern will be figuring out how to make it through the long weekends. Work manages to keep my mind occupied during the day through the week, but the weekends—that’s a whole lot of hours to fill with something other than my usual activity.”
“Don’t you worry about your weekends,” Desiree said with a mischievous grin. “I’ll make sure we find something to keep you occupied.” She stood up straight. “While you read the Bible, I think I’ll go get on the treadmill and work out for about forty-five minutes. Maybe you and I can start walking together after you get home from work?”
Edwin smiled. “Sounds good to me.”
Desiree leaned over and kissed him on his lips. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“I know this is hard for you.”
“No harder than yours is for you. You haven’t smoked. You’re watching what you eat. You’re exercising. We’re going to lick these strongholds, Desiree—together. It’s me and you against the world.”
“Correction: Me, you, and God against the world,” Desiree said. “And Jesus has already overcome the world.”
“Right.” Because I definitely won’t be able to do this on my own. I bet you my numbers hit tonight. I just know it. This is probably the night my regularly played numbers will come in as a straight trifecta. I just know it.
He began to read to himself. “Proverbs, chapter one, verse one: ‘The Proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel.’ Verse two: ‘To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding.’”
Oh yeah, this is going to be a long twenty-one days. A looong twenty-one days.
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