Some time ago, a good friend and I were talking about age. She told me, “just wait until you turn thirty.” I thought to myself how is it that turning thirty can make that big of a difference in someone’s life that they are willing to urge someone else to look forward to a drastic change. Let me tell you, I have been thirty going on only two months now, and I am floored. How is this possible?

Within the past two months, I have felt as if I am a new person. I can’t even explain to you the differences; however, there are differences. A part of me began to think, “Michelle, you are crazy, this is your subconscious playing games with you, you heard those words now you are taking it too far.” (Please tell me I am not the only one who talks to myself like this lol) Yet, I am aware of a constantly evolving and change that I could not explain. So I began to search scripture.

As I searched the word of God, I learned that thirty was the prescribed age for a priest to begin their ministry. Joseph was thirty years old when he began serving the king of Egypt. King David was thirty when he began to reign over Judah. And Luke 3:23 tells us Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.

While the first have of the year, I began sharing the word of God through BeEncourage.com and podcast. In July, less than three months before my thirth birthday, I began praying through and working on opening BeEncourage Resale Ministry. Just six days before my birthday, BeEncourage Resale had its grand opening. Sounds great, right! Yeah, not so much. After the doors were opened to the public, doors of many trials were opened for me.

In my struggle and study, I realized the same happened to Jesus. Luke 3 tells us that Jesus began his ministry; then, in Luke 4, it starts by saying Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where the devil tempted him. Sometimes we feel that it will always be by “still waters” when the Holy Spirit leads us. But that is not always true. Jesus was led into the desert for a long and challenging time of testing, and so was I.

I continued to study. My interest was in how did Jesus handle his growth and ministry during the testing and after? During the time of testing, Jesus was careful to follow faithfully wherever the Holy Spirit led. He knew and obeyed the word of God. Not only did he know and obey, but he also used the word against the enemy. See, I found myself in a slump. Then I realized that I was defenses rather than being offensive. I was not on guard against the schemes of the enemy. Just like satan went after Jesus, with doubt and temptation, he comes after us. But in Ephesians 6:17, we learn that the Word Of God is a sword. I was not using my sword.

After Jesus defeated the enemy during his time of testing, scripture states the enemy left him until an opportune time, which means that throughout his ministry, Jesus would confront Satan in many forms. The same is true for us. We need to be always on guard, regardless of what age we are.

How are you preparing to withstand the attacks of the enemy?