I say this with love and with full self-awareness, because I have been the woman in the story. Sometimes what feels like a spiritual attack is not an attack at all. Sometimes you are just tired, hungry, dehydrated, and overstimulated, and your body has run out of room to cope.
The body keeps the score
When you have not slept, eaten well, or stopped moving in days, everything starts to feel like a crisis. Your patience disappears. Your thoughts spiral. A normal disagreement feels like the end of a relationship. It is tempting to assign all of that a spiritual cause, because that feels more meaningful than admitting you skipped lunch and have not had a quiet moment since Tuesday.
But the body keeps the score, and a depleted body produces feelings that lie. They feel completely true in the moment. They are still chemistry, not necessarily reality.
Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. Then he lay down and slept. An angel touched him and said, get up and eat.1 Kings 19:3-5
The order matters
I love that story. When the prophet Elijah was at his lowest, convinced his life was over, God did not begin with a sermon. He let him sleep and fed him. Rest and food came first. The conversation came after.
So here is my honest advice. Before you label it, before you send the text, before you make the big decision, take care of the body first. Drink some water. Eat something real. Sleep if you can. Then see how the situation looks. A surprising amount of the time, the crisis quiets down once the tank is full. And the things that remain are the ones actually worth praying through.
With you on the journey,
Autumn