We are soldiers

I wonder if we realize how much God loves us and how much good He wants for us.

Jeremiah 29:11-13, or I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Here’s a question. We all know this verse and if you look on Pinterest you will find pages and pages of Jeremiah 29:11 paintings, drawings, calligraphy and tattoos. In fact I only typed in J-E-R-E and I got Jeremiah 29:11. I didn’t even have to search. I think I can assume that we all know this verse and this passage. It’s nice and comforting. It’s safe and it doesn’t confront us and we can look at it when we’re not really prospering and say, “It’s okay, God has a plan, I’m just going to believe that.”

What part do we have to play in that plan? I think that a lot of people assume (or wish) that God will just reach down and make the plan a reality without much effort on our part.

But do we really believe what God is saying here. Do we put it into our minds and write it on our hearts. It’s all good and well to write things on walls (physical or virtual) but to write them on our hearts is another story altogether. When we are sick and tired and struggling financially what do we do? Do we embrace this verse and cry out to God or do we curl up in a ball and just cry? Obviously the easy thing to do is to just cry, get depressed and tell everyone (and ourselves) how unfair life is. That’s the normal thing to do isn’t it? We get together with our friends and complain and compare unfairness. Nobody stands up and says, “What do you think you’re saying?” Nobody reminds us that God is really on our side and that we are, in fact, speaking death over our situation.

Proverbs 18:21, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Whenever we speak we are putting words out there into the universe. Words that we can’t put back where they came from. We speak all kinds of negative things over ourselves and then we can’t understand why all these terrible things are happening to us. I realize that is becomes a habit and I fully realize that when bad things happen and when we’re feeling miserable or sick, it’s not easy to be positive. But that is exactly what we must do. We have to force ourselves to become positive. We must praise God because God does not bring the bad things over us. That is the work of the enemy. God allows us to go through trials to strengthen us.

Romans 5:3-5,  And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

We need to remember this when we are despondent and when it feels like the whole world is resting on our shoulders. We are becoming better people. We are getting spiritually strong.

John 10:10, The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

If the enemy’s mission is to kill, steal from, and destroy God’s children and he is not going to stop, how can we survive? We can survive by taking a few practical steps. Ephesians 6 tells us to put of the full armour of God. Only soldiers wear armour, therefore we are soldiers and we are in a battle. If we weren’t in a battle we wouldn’t need armour and if we think we aren’t in a battle we are living under an illusion. Then we can change the way we think according to Romans 12:2. The way we do that is to filter our thoughts as is stated in 2 Corinthians 10:15 and think positive thoughts (Philippians 4:8)

It isn’t easy and the Word never tells us that is will be but we are soldiers and we have to make sure that we are well trained in the skills that our manual prescribes. We are soldiers and our commander in chief has a plan that is going to prosper us.

The onslaught

I have a few friends who are really tired of struggling. They are asking what more they can do to get some favour. What can they do to get a break. The economy is tough, the political situation isn’t ideal and it looks like the devil has launched a full on assault against believers.

John 1:14, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as on the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus is the Word, and the Word as we know it is the Bible. And a word is something that is spoken or written. When God created the world he spoke and the things He spoke come into being. Jesus was the form that God took when He manifested on earth. The Word in human form.

Ephesians 6:17, And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

We need to put on the armour so that we are protected against the onslaught. It also says that we have to use the sword of the Spirit. That is the Word of God. The Scriptures. But the scriptures don’t help us one bit if we don’t have a relationship with Jesus, the Word. The Word of God only has power when we are walking in a relationship with Jesus.

Psalm 119:105, Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path.

We need to be guided by God’s Word, by the things that are written in the Bible. I realise that everything in the Bible is old. Very old. Thousands of years old. But in all these thousands of years human nature has not changed. The issues, challenges and the questions that people have are still the same. Cain was jealous of Abel; People were so lawless that God got Noah to build an ark and destroyed everyone in a flood; Abram lied about Sarah being his sister and had a child by someone other than his wife; Jacob cheated Esau; Joseph’s brothers sold him to slave traders. That’s just the first 37 chapters of the Bible. Doesn’t it sound a lot like every other soapie on TV? Believe me, the bible really does have all the answers.

John 10:10, The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.

The devil is our enemy. There is no midway when it comes to good and evil. The devil is bad and he wants us dead. He isn’t going to be nice to us when we get into his territory. We cannot afford to be Sunday Christians and then run our lives and our businesses like the world on the other six days. If we aren’t totally sold out to Jesus, we are going to be easy prey to the lies that the enemy is whispering into our ears. He wants to steal our families, our money and our integrity. When he has all those things he is going to try his level best to kill us. We simply have to turn away from everything that is evil and cling to Jesus because that is the only way we are going to have eternal life.

Proverbs 18:10, The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and they are safe.

God.

Jesus is the name above all names and when we are in any trouble we need to call out to Him. If we have questions about how to live He is the one to ask. If we have trouble we can expect Him to give us the best advice.

I would like to sum it up as follows. The way we can fight the devil is by using the Word. We have to confess Scriptures over our situations. We can expect victory. When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11) He overcame the enemy with words from scripture. We have to follow His example and find verses in the Bible that are relevant for the situations that we are in and we have to speak them. Spoken words have so much power and the spoken word is the power that we have been given over our enemy.

Find your verses today and start speaking them!