The greatest struggle of a woman is within her. The minute she sets out to do something major in her life, a voice deep within is heard and will continue to be heard until she finally ignores it and goes ahead with her task. Voices that say she does not deserve to be happy. Voices that say she can never be the woman she wants to be. Voices that say she will never be good enough.

If we could name these voices, we could perhaps call them inner abusive voices. If it weren’t for this daily struggle we have to go through, everything would be so much easier, much less complex, and far better. Unfortunately, they are here to stay. You and I go through this struggle everyday, all the time. Be it at home, or at work, at night, or during the day, the fight goes on for all of us.

However, in this daily battle lies the key to both success and failure of every human being. Just like in all battles, someone has to be the winner. Sometimes it’s not necessarily the stronger, but the one that lasts the longest. If you think about it, the key to your success is within you. If you overcome your daily battle, you succeed in life. If you fail in your daily battle, you fail in life.

Some people think that their success depends on God alone, but wouldn’t you think that if it were entirely up to Him, we would all be successful in life since He is True Love? Could a Father enjoy seeing His children suffering, depressed, losing hope in life, and miserable?

Some things in life can only be done by us, not even God can interfere. And one of these things is to fight our inner self that keeps on pulling us down, making us feel unworthy, and giving us ideas of giving up. It’s huge fight that no one ever sees. It goes on in the dark, in the deepest place of our being, and it is between you and the INNER YOU.

Have you ever not done something out of fear and later regretted it for many afterwards? Have you ever given up on
an idea because you thought you could never get it done yourself? Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought to
yourself, “ I’ll never be anyone?” If so, bingo! Those were inner battles that you lost.

It doesn’t only happen to some peopleit happens to everybody. Born of God, filled with the Holy Spirit Christians go
through this everyday and because of some failed battles, they can never truly testify to God’s power in their lives.
They blame the church, the pastor, the people, the government and even Godbut they fail to see that the real blame
is on them for not overcoming their own inner battles.

Remember Queen Esther? She must have gone through all kinds of battles within herself before going to speak to her husband the King, whose reputation was that of a furious king who didn’t spare even his own ex-wife. We don’t
read about the thoughts that came into her head through those three days of prayer and fasting. It must have been the longest three days of her life, but she overcame herself and consequently became the heroine of Israel at the time, plus an example to all of us today. Read the book of Esther.

The battle goes on and only the strong and persistent will make it.

In Faith
Cristiane Cardoso