We didn’t have to make it this far, but we did. It is by the victories the Lord has won in our lives that we are here today. He has blessed us and anointed us and gave us the power. We are to be a people that are strong and take action (Dan. 11:32)! We are a people created to have dominion (Gen. 1:28)! We are victorious! Claim it for your life today and shout AMEN!
“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,” 2 Timothy 2:3, NKJV
Over the last few years I have become extremely sensitive to the plights of our military servicemen and women and their families, being that we became one also. We had one of our own deployed in another country far away. It was an experience like no other.
Nothing prepares you for the sadness that comes when they depart. The heart unexpectedly wrestles with negative thoughts while they are away and sometimes the hopelessness of not being able to help overshadows you when you hear of their hurts and the trials they face.
It takes a lot to be a good soldier! Do you have the makings of it? Let’s find out.
From the first moment one arrives at basic training, Paul’s truth to Timothy becomes a reality: for one to be a good soldier you have to “endure hardship,” 2 Timothy 2:3, NKJV. From that very day, one is conditioned to withstand the fight. Bodies, hearts and minds are tested for staying power. They are trained to defend and protect. That means the task is not easy. One has to be able to endure some stuff that the regular, every day Joe can’t. People that are weak won’t last long at all.
God’s army is no different. It’s not for the faint of heart. We are in a spiritual battle and the gospel needs defending and protecting. Knowing beforehand of the possible struggles ahead can dress one with readiness of mind. It can prepare them for the fight through trials and tribulations. Paul had been urgent for Timothy to know ahead of time that there will be times of resistance, but the need to press is even greater.
Endurance is key for a soldier. Learning how to walk through the muck and the mire of this world takes an exertion of strength. But, the only way to get stronger is to keep pushing through, building up the necessary muscles that it will take to see this to the point of victory.
Secondly, Paul tells Timothy, “No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life . . .” (2 Timothy 2:4a, NKJV). It detracts the mind from the mission. To be in God’s army you have to be focused. Circumstances will always arise. Situations will always try to push themselves to the forefront of everything, but one has to remain focused and centered on the task at hand.
God has gifted each of us with special things to do for His kingdom, but the distractions of this life often invade and cloud our focus. It makes it hard for us to zero in on what God wants us to do – or, on what kind of soldier He wants us to be. A good soldier has learned how to take stock of everything going on around them, prioritize them, and keep straight on the course where God is leading, working in the gifts that God wants him to.
When we do that, 2 Timothy 2:4b, tells us it pleases, “him who enlisted him as a soldier,” (NKJV). The right man for the right job! God sees the potential that each of us have. Unfortunately, many of us don’t see it the way God sees it. Because of that, we are not so inclined to press through the fight and work in those gifts He has given us.
It “pleases” God when He sees us operating in and fulfilling what He has purposed us to do. He knows we can do it. Now, we need to grab a hold of those marching orders and press forward until the mission is complete. Make Him proud that you have been “enlisted!”
Switching themes to athletic competitions, in order to be one that can make it, 2 Timothy 2:5 tells us that everything has to be done “according to the rules,” (NKJV). Whether in competitions, or military, or with God, we don’t enlist on our own terms. Protocol has to be followed. Once you are enlisted, your way is out the door. The way you used to walk, the way you used to talk, the way you used to stand, the way you used to eat, etc. All of that is done away with. When you joined up, you joined up and took an oath to follow the rules.
We will never see the victory at the end of the battle trying to do this our way. It’s God’s way or no way! “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” (Isaiah 55:8, NKJV). God said that Himself! If you don’t compete according to the rules, you can run all you want, but you still will not get the prize.
Finally, switching themes once again, 2 Timothy 2:6, lets us know that it all pays off after a while. “The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops,” (NKJV). Yes, it is hard! Yes, sometimes you will feel like quitting! But, don’t! Hang on in there and the reward will be yours!
Do you have what it takes to see this through until the end? Recheck that list and note if there are any areas that need improvement. Start today to be even more determined to be a “Good Soldier.” Endurance + Focus + Pleasing God + Following the Rules = a Reward for all your hard work. Are you up to the challenge today? Do you have what it takes to make it?
“But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God,” 1 Samuel 30:6b, NKJV
Distressed – yeah! Discouragement – you betcha! Disappointment – inevitable! Depressed – my middle name!
These were all things that David, the once-proud warrior, was facing. Upon returning to Ziklag, David found out everything he cared about was gone. Not only had the city been raided and burned to the ground, but their families, along with their wives, and children were now the captives of the enemy.
How devastating this must have all been! Things can be replaced but to lose your family at the mercy (or not the mercy) of an enemy – it’s too much to bear. “David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep,” 1 Samuel 30:4, NKJV.
Have you been there before? Have you ever cried until you can’t cry anymore? That’s a brokenness that can’t be easily healed. It’s a state of desperation where there is no quick answer. There is nothing but the tears on the pillows. No solace. No comfort. No peace. “No more power to weep.”
David’s situation grew dimmer when the people who were closest to him turned their backs on him. “The people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved,” 1 Samuel 30:6a, NKJV. These were the men that rode with him. Those who fought in battle with him. Those whom David gathered together as a band and turned a bunch of nobodies into somebodies. Yet, here they are on the brink of committing a great evil against an innocent man.
Everybody needs somebody to blame. At least, that’s what you hear many people say, and we see this kind of primitive blame placing here. To them, David is to blame, and David will be the one to pay the price.
Have you ever felt that you were in this alone? As if the whole world has turned their backs on you as David’s men did with him? Do you may feel like you are battling alone and everyone else is just ready to cast stones at you?
David’s desperation led him to where all of ours should – the LORD!
“David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.” The only place where true solace and comfort of the heart can be found – in God!
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need,” Hebrews 4:16, KJV. Thank God we don’t have to go this alone despite how our circumstances may look. God has privileged us with an opportunity to invite Him in the process of dealing with our hurts and disappointments. How many times have you turned to a friend in desperate times, and they were nowhere to be found? Or, worse yet, they couldn’t do anything to add to your comfort or didn’t care?
God does not do that! He openly shows His love and concern by allowing us to dump it all on Him. Come to the throne that we might get! Get what? “Mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
In a time of need? Yes, David was. He had nowhere else to turn. He found out the hard way how quickly people will forsake you. Regardless, it didn’t dim his hope. David knew from past experiences where to find his help. He could sing like the other psalmist, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills – from whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth,” Psalms 121:1-2, NKJV. Over and over again, God has proven himself in the life of David, and this time would be no different.
I wonder how many of us have that faithful, past relationship with God, knowing that when we are in a time of need, we can turn to Him over and over again? Has our life been so, in following after Him, as David’s was, that the connection of encouragement we receive from the LORD is ever-present? If not, you can always start today.
David initiated the search for God’s help. He did not ask the people for their opinion of what he should do. David did not continue to wallow in self-pity because everybody was against him. He didn’t give up or throw in the towel because recovery seemed impossible. “David said to Abiathar the priest . . . Please bring the ephod here to me . . . So David inquired of the LORD, saying, ‘Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?’ And He answered him, ‘Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all,'” 1 Samuel 30:7-8, NKJV.
“Without fail recover all.” God is the only one who could ever make such a promise.
The point of this all is simple. God is our source for everything, even encouragement. It’s nice to get a “Good job!” from people once in a while or a pat on the back – but it is God whom we look. Sometimes situations will be so bad that we may feel isolated from all. Yet, we are also in a position to be so full. To be able to recover all “without fail.”
Only what we find in strengthening ourselves in God can be labeled “without fail.” Only the encouragement we have in Him will endure and never falter or fade. He is our staying power. He is our strength when we are weak. Our shelter in the midst of the storm. Our Hightower. Our fortress. And so much more!
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Sometimes those measures mean turning a deaf ear to everyone else and their negativity about the situation and looking to God for counsel and help. And He will, “without fail,” be your help through it all. Find encouragement in God alone!
Minister encouragement to yourself through God’s grace today!
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“Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them,” 2 Kings 6:16. (Read 2 Kings 6:8-17)
If God opened our eyes,
what would we see?
Armies of heavenly hosts
championed to defend me.
Armed and geared
in heaven’s glow and might,
commanded to protect
through the perils of the fight.
Unseen, yet seen,
through the eyes of faith.
Chariots of fire
to protect the way.
Real guards, by heaven’s charge,
stand at the ready.
Heirs of salvation to keep,
and help hold them steady.
In this fight,
we are never alone.
We see that God protects us
from His heavenly throne.
“And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:17)
Copyright © Word For Life Says.com (Sharing any posts or lessons can only be done through the share buttons provided on this site from the original posts, lessons, and articles only. You can reblog from the original posts only using the reblog button provided, or share using the share buttons provided from these social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, etc., and they must be shared from the original posts only. All other repostings are prohibited. Posts and other items of interest found on this site MAY NOT BE COPIED AND PASTED, downloaded, uploaded, etc to another website or entity not listed (physical or electronic). See COPYRIGHT PAGE for more details.
“And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s,” 1 Corinthians 3:23
Do you remember the playground days? Groups over there playing on the monkey bars. Groups over here playing hopscotch. Another group hovers in a corner laughing and joking with one another. Children match up in pairs to go down the slide together. Run, tag, you’re it!
Then there was the one child who was a bit shy. It’s not that he/she didn’t want to play with the others, they didn’t quite know how. Fear of rejection has kept them to themselves, content to read on the park bench or swing and play a solitary game.
Feeling like you don’t belong. Well, we’ve all been there I think. It doesn’t feel good. Feeling like an outcast while the rest of the world buddy’s up and goes about their business makes one feel like a castaway. A loner on a desert isle like in the famous Tom Hanks movie, talking to a soccer ball. (Let’s not get that far – :)!)
What is harder to deal with is when one comes to the body of Christ, the Church, and still feels in isolation. They still have a sense of being a wallflower, watching everyone else getting on just fine while they just occupy their own small, private space.
Thank God, we are not alone! We are not outcast! We are not rejects! WE BELONG!
We belong. Oh, how important are those words to the lonely soul? We belong. How many times has the hurting heart needed to hear that they are not by themselves in this life? We belong. We are part of something greater. We belong!
“Ye are Christ’s!” He has secured membership for you and I. He has redeemed us and set in a place to be called His own. We are now “joint-heirs” with Him, we are connected with Him, (Romans 8:17, KJV). We belong!
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people,” (1 Peter 2:9, KJV). We belong!
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,” (John 1:12, KJV). We belong!
“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus,” (Galatians 3:26, KJV). We belong!
“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God, (Ephesians 2:19, KJV). We belong! And, on and on and on it goes. We belong! We are not alone!
“Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men!” (Psalm 31:19, NKJV).
WE BELONG! Get that in your spirit today! Go through your day knowing that God loves you and He treasures you. He cares for you and you are secured you in Him. “For God is with the generation of the righteous, (Psalm 14:5, NKJV). YOU BELONG!
Playground cliques do not apply! YOU BELONG!
“It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” Acts 1:7
. . . . But we try to, don’t we? We feel a pull of God on our lives; a tugging to go here, or do this, or start that – and, we begin to question Jesus like the disciples did.
We want to know is it going to happen like this. We want the unfolding of the story now so that we will know how to proceed. We want to know the ins and outs of His plan for our lives. But, we don’t need to know the everything of everythings that we want to know! Yep, I said that on purpose 🙂 !
This is the opposite of the faith walk that we are called to. Think about it. Abraham was called to leave the familiar to step into the unknown which brought about a name and a legacy that would endure through generations. Hebrews 11:8 tells us, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”
He didn’t know! He didn’t know the plan of God! He didn’t have all the details. He just went! By faith, he stepped out where God told him to go and he “obeyed.” He didn’t question God and he didn’t try to figure the path out ahead of him. He just went!
There are certain parts of the plan that God will reveal, and the rest, as Jesus puts it, “the Father has put in His own authority.”
In other words, we have to trust Him to see to His part while we obey, step out, and see to our part even if we don’t know everything.
FATHER GOD,
We lift up our prayers, our souls, and our lives to You today. Please, lead us and guide throughout this day. Cause Your way to be made known to us and Your favor to rest upon us. Help us navigate the ups and downs of this day. You are our hope and stay. In Jesus’ mighty name, we pray, AMEN!
If you are longing for a turn-around, God is all the hope you need.
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