We are in The Battle

WE ARE IN THE BATTLE.

Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

We are in the battle; we will win the battle; and we are winning it. So far from defeating situations, these are the arenas where the victories are won. We can come back with pride that we have been so profitably disposed in our lives.

I have often used the example of the young man who is sitting on the bench in a football game. He never gets into the game, never gets a knot on his head, and never gets any mud on his uniform. He runs up to his father after the game and says, “Wasn't I fortunate? They never put me in there. I never had to get into the fight. I never got hurt or even knocked down. Man, was I sweating it, but they never even looked in my direction.” We would question whether this young man understood what was going on. What was he doing on the team in the first place if that was his attitude? Apparently he wanted the glory of being a football player, but none of the difficulties that went with it. We have similar questions to raise about the Christian who wants to get by lightly, who wantto avoid all the trials, and who are content to be carried along on beds of ease. Does he understand? Does he know what is going on? Does he know what we are called to? And perhaps most important of all, does he care? We are not called to that. “For thy sake we are killed all the day long.” But what of it? What if we lose the glory of this life? What if we lose this physical body? What if we lose these material possessions? We are going to lose all of that anyhow. Those things do not satisfy! They have not fulfilled those who have had them! But the riches of heaven, the virtues of the faith, the things that God will give us, and the will that He will work out in our lives as a result of faithfulness - ah, that is a different story. That will bring to us all that we desireboth now and in the future. The Will of God then will allow these things to come our way. But the faithful person who is pursuing his calling, and seeking that Will of God, and who is being led by the Holy Ghost will not be destroyed by any experience of life. Nor will those experiences have negative effects upon anything of true value. We can make it. We will survive. We have the strength and the ability. God has called us to victory through these things and not around them. The Church marches on: down the valleyof tears, through the valley of death, and through the field of battle. We do not slink around it. We do not sneak and hide in the darkness and crawl around the enemy. We engage him openly and win the war through the strength that is in Christ:

Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.