We Are Our Worst Enemy / Mrs Tiffany Ingham

Mrs Tiffany Ingham

Pastor's Wife

Emmanuel Baptist Church

Newland, NC

Happy Thanksgiving Yall! God is so good to us! Today, I am going to share with you the one thing I am Thankful to have learned while going through a trial.

   It happened one Friday morning, at 4am, in the month of May 2008. I was awakened by a loud crash!  It came from my children’s bedroom.  I sat straight up in bed and awoke my husband to tell him that someone was in the kid’s bedroom. He grabbed a baseball bat and as he opened their bedroom door the fire alarm went off. The closet in my children’s bedroom was in flames and was spreading fast! My husband grabbed a rug and began beating down the flames so I would be able to grab our children out of their bunk bed. We did not know at the time, but the insulation in the attic was on fire as well. We lost almost everything in our home. Our children were safe, thank the Lord! My husband had to be taken to the hospital to be treated for the burns on his hands and arms. 

   I can remember coming back to the parsonage, with my husband, whose hands and arms were now bandaged. As I walked through the blackened mess all I could say was “God is so good!” He spared my husband and my children!”

   A few days later, a fire science class came through and assessed the damage. We learned that a faulty light in my children’s bedroom closet had started the fire.  We also learned that if our children had been in their bedroom for only five more minutes they would have lost their lives. As well as, if my husband and myself had been in the house for ten more minutes we would have lost our lives as well. 

   God had spared my family. I didn’t care about the possessions that had been lost in the fire. But then the big “D” began to set in…Depression. I wasn’t depressed over our possessions even though the church had forgotten to sign the insurance papers that covered possessions. I became overwhelmed with worry about my children’s safety. I didn’t want to let them out of my sight. At nighttime, while lying in bed, I would worry that another fire would come and take my children. You see I had a miscarriage before my daughter was born. I never dwelled on it because I was so thankful the Lord allowed me to have a child I could hold in my arms. Now that my son and daughter were almost taken, it overwhelmed my mind with worry.

   One evening, I attended a revival meeting and the preacher preached a sermon on “Depression”. Can you believe it? A preacher who actually admitted that he had gone through a depression. His sermon changed my life. The title of the sermon was “Protect Me From Me”. All of those bad thoughts that I had been having about possible harm coming to my children. I was dwelling on them and the devil was enjoying every minute of me terrorizing myself. 

   You see…the devil will give us a thought and we choose whether or not we will grab it and hold onto it. We need to tell the devil to flee and give that thought to God right then and there. It was then; I realized that God would take my children when He wants them. They belong to Him and they are in His hands. God has just loaned them to me as a gift. ~Ephesians 4:27 says “Neither give place to the devil”.

   Ladies, remember that God loves you. He does not want us to torture ourselves with thoughts of what may or may not happen.

   I have an incurable disease that causes me to feel worthless at times. The devil will bring horrible thoughts to my mind. But we can not let the devil use thoughts such as: "I am worthless",“I am ugly”, “I am not good enough”, “No one likes me”, “God can’t use me”, or being worried what others may think of us. God does not want us to worry about things such as: Our children, our bills, our past, our future, our health, and other people’s problems. We need to give our bad thoughts and worries to God.

~Ephesians 4:6-7 “ Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

7. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

 I pray this helps you as much as it helps me on a daily basis. Happy Thanksgiving!

Hugs ladies! Remember, you are loved! We are so blessed!