For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

I’ve had this recurring image lately of our lives as a landscape. In this landscape there are valleys, barren and terrifying as well as lush and peaceful, mountains, both rocky and tree topped, rolling hills and flowing streams, deserts and plains, each representing a part of our lives. Hopes, fears, dreams, disappointments, the totality of our experiences, concerns, relationships, all of our lives laid out like a map before us. And scattered across the surface of the land are high towers, defensive structures, strongholds built over the course of time. In some places they jut up abruptly from the valley floor, a single form watchful against the skyline. In other places they form networks of towers with walls between each one protectively isolating whatever lies inside. 

Throughout God’s Word we see references to strongholds. In some verses, God Himself is described as our stronghold. 

In 2nd Samuel 22:3 the prophet describes God as,

“My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; My savior, You save me from violence.”

In Psalm 9:9, God is described as a stronghold in times of trouble and in Joel 3:16 as a refuge for His people, a stronghold to the sons of Israel. 

But in other verses, strongholds are described as the defenses of the enemy. 

In Isaiah 23:11, God commands the destruction of the strongholds of Canaan. 

In Isaiah 2:15-17, the prophet tells God’s people, 

“Against every high tower,
Against every fortified wall, 
Against all the ships of Tarshish
And against all the beautiful craft.
The pride of man will be humbled
And the loftiness of men will be abased;
And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,”

In 2nd Corinthians 10:4-5, Paul tells the believers at Corinth that because of Christ, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Sweet friends, as I survey the landscape of my own life, God has led me to recognize that any stronghold, any defensive measure that I have built with my own hands is not a protective fortress as I have long believed, but rather an offensive foothold from which the enemy can attack me at will. Any security that I have placed in my abilities or talents, in finances, in material things, in relationships or other people, any security that I depend on which is not God is a stronghold from which satan can blindside me. 

For example, about two years after I took a position at our state department of education, I was offered a promotion. I accepted and was very pleased that my employers recognized the hard work I was doing and wanted me to take on some leadership responsibilities. I also gained more pay and of course, more work. Two years after that though, we experienced a structural change and everyone in my position as well as one position above me was demoted, during Covid, while managing a massive amount of virtual students and teachers all while working from home, which was 10x more stressful and 10x more work than we’d ever had in the office up to that point. I was devastated. Absolutely gutted. I was working harder than ever before, for longer hours than ever before (upwards of 14-16 hours a day, six days a week), more efficiently than ever before with more responsibilities than ever before and I was demoted – for no other reason than a new leader’s structural vision. It couldn’t have happened at a worse time for any of us emotionally or mentally. The pay cut was minimal for me (though much worse for others) but the cut to my professional confidence, trust, and identity were huge. 

Once we returned to the workplace and began to recover from the trauma of the spring of 2020 and the whole 2020-21 school year (and trust me, it was traumatizing for educators and educational leaders), I would find myself flaring up over issues that would have seemed minimal before. I took a bitter stance toward most leadership decisions, believing that whatever work I did would likely be undone by the next leadership change, baby out with the bathwater and all that, and for the first time in my career, I began to despair that nothing I did really mattered anyway because someone else would just come along at the top and change everything forcing me and everyone else to start all over again. 

Now, you know as well as I do that we each have a divine purpose, a destiny that God calls us to move toward (Jeremiah 29:11; Ephesians 2:10). But dear heart, the enemy had found a stronghold in my pride of position, in my confidence as an educational expert, and from that tower, he attacked me at will. Brutal, demoralizing attacks about my leadership’s belief in my ability, on my own beliefs about myself as an educator, on my professional confidence and my life’s purpose. It was awful.

Then, in August of 2022 when I left that position to pursue writing and educational consulting, the enemy used that same stronghold to volley attacks on my decision, belittling my calling, telling me I’d heard God wrong, noting that there was no financial security in what I was doing, that we’d be broke by Christmas (echoed in person by a member of leadership when I submitted my resignation letter), that all of the sacrifices I had made to earn degrees and climb the career ladder were for nothing if I wasn’t still in the rat race, earning the almighty dollar and making a name for myself. I cycled through anxiety and self-doubt, and I longed for the familiar security of who I had been and the workload and the pay that came with the position even though I knew there was no real security in it at all.  

You see, those degrees, my position on the career ladder, the network of educational leaders who requested my work, the positive feedback from educators I helped…I used them all over the years to build a stronghold, a safe place for myself, a belief that in these things I would be secure. But one by one I began to realize that there was no real security in degrees or accolades, in professional networks, or popularity. There really wasn’t even any security in a nice income; the more I made, the more we spent, and the more we thought we needed.

In constructing my protection with my own hands, I had in fact built a place for the enemy to launch sneak attacks. In building human wisdom, I’d really bought into a worldly timeshare, one in which the enemy is the property manager.

Walking more closely with the Lord each day, I am discovering more and more of these strongholds along the landscape of my life, professionally and personally – they’re simply everywhere. Places where the enemy pops up and hits me with a sneak attack of anxiety over an upcoming expense or a charge of anger over a good natured comment I’ve taken poorly or a wave of hopelessness over a difficult relationship or challenging project. And beloved reader, Sibling in Christ, I’ll wager all those degrees I still cling to more tightly than I should that you have strongholds too, places you’ve built with human hands and human wisdom to make yourself feel more secure, maybe places you’ve bought into, a worldly timeshare you fear you can’t buy your way out of even if you try.

That’s an uncomfortable thought isn’t it. But just because it’s uncomfortable doesn’t make it untrue. And looking through Scripture, we can clearly see that God wants to be our only strong tower, our primary refuge in times of trouble, our shield and our horn. In God alone is security that never fails (Psalm 91:1-12). When we receive Christ as our Lord and Savior, God seals us with the Holy Spirit, a seal that cannot be removed (Ephesians 1:13). Nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39) and God’s love always protects us (1 Corinthians 13:7). 

Child of God, if you’re tired of being blindsided by the enemy, exhausted from his sneak attacks of anxiety, worn out by the charges of anger or bitterness he wells up in your heart, drained from his constant barrages of despair and disappointment, it’s time to run to the One who tears down every stronghold, who demolishes every lie the enemy throws at us, who upholds us in His righteous right hand. There is victory in Christ Jesus and the sooner we allow God to remove the strongholds that we have built from the landscapes of our lives, the sooner and more securely we will walk in that victory! 

I’m ready to walk in victory. Are you?

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