My enemy...the mosquito

What do you do when you're attacked by an enemy?

As I write this, sitting at my computer, I am being attacked by a small, but powerful and relentless mosquito. He has bitten my foot twice already, and the two times I've caught a glimpse of him, he has eluded my death trap. My vengeance is growing as my fear grows...my fear that he will attack again...because he has proven that he is out to get me. I'm developing a paranoia...I keep thinking I feel something landing on me, but I look and there's nothing...yet.

Am I accomplishing the work I set out to do tonight? Not at all. I'm completely distracted and afraid to NOT focus on what I fear.

Have you ever been there? ...Feeling like you had better stay keenly aware of the very thing you fear or else you are doomed? Psychologists may call this hypervigilance. It keeps us from living in a state of peace and joy...believing that we had better watch out for ourselves, because no one else will.

Hmmm. But is that right? No one else will? How easy it is to forget that I have a God who is intimately acquainted with everything in my life...including the big enemies and the little ones. That being true, I ask the question again, what do you do when you're attacked by an enemy?

After thinking about this, I chose to pray. I asked God to either give my enemy into my hands that I could defeat him OR to defeat my enemy himself apart from my effort and give me peace. I realize God's answer could be "no" to both options. He could allow my enemy to attack again. But faith would allow me to believe that God would still use it for good in a way that maybe only he knows (maybe for my character, maybe for your benefit, maybe to teach me how to fight enemy attacks, maybe for some reason I couldn't possibly understand). Will I trust him? ...so that I can live in peace and joy.