Battle Cry!

Announce this to the godless nations:
Prepare for battle!
Soldiers at attention!
Present arms! Advance!
Turn your shovels into swords,
turn your hoes into spears.
Let the weak one throw out his chest
and say, "I'm tough, I'm a fighter."
Hurry up, pagans! Wherever you are, get a move on!
Get your act together.
Prepare to be
shattered by God! Joel 3:9-11 MSG

Do you ever feel like you are in a war? Whenever you are trying to do right, you are drown with wrongness. When you make strides into freedom from fears, habits, hang-ups and hurts, all of a sudden--BANG!--you get hammered with a fresh line of blows to your area of infant strength growth.

Seriously, be honest--do you ever just get tired fighting? I do. Do you ever just want to make a fist and shake at Satan, yelling, "Just leave me alone, you big bully!?" I have. I'm not proud of those feelings, but I need to be honest and if I am, maybe you can too. I get ever so weary of "fighting the good fight." Of trying to rise above. To, as in my case, conquer my self insecurities--have my moment of feeling such peace and oneness with my God and fellowman--only to have that moment taken away by Satan.

But thankfully our God is a god full of grace and He gives us little gifts along the way. For example, just like today, the Lord gave me this verse which encourages me with this thought. Life--true, everlasting life--is a battle. And while I may get tired of having to be on top of it all the time, it's the price I pay.

It may be wearying to have to just "know" the truth and cling to it--but at least we have the truth to cling to. We are blessed to have the trinity--Father, Son & Holy Spirit to share the battle scars with. At least we have the armor of the Bible to protect our hearts, minds and souls. And the gift of prayer, when it just gets too much and we need to cry out.

Brothers and sisters, we cannot give up the good fight. For if we did, where would we be? Where would our world be? We do NOT want the evil one to win. After all, Jesus fought the ultimate fight for us--and that should be encouragement enough for a lifetime, don't you think?