Training for battle

It might not feel like a war-zone… but, I guarantee the battle isn’t finished.

Our financial burden has been lifted recently – amazing beauty!!

I found myself going through our story here on NoLongerAshes.com… and I realized that, sometimes it is easier to recognize the battle when things are hard. When my struggles ease up some, I tend to think the battle is over.

I can’t help but wonder if our enemy strategically uses the ‘easier’ time against us.

Sometimes it is easier to trust God in the midst of the struggle…

but, when the struggle is gone, we get comfortable and forget the story being written.

I get complacent… and then I am surprised when I am thrown back into battle.

What can I do during this season of ‘calm’?

I can train.

We all know that until Jesus returns, there will be more battles to fight… I don’t know about you, but I want to be ready.

I caught myself reading the ‘verse of the day’ yesterday on one of my phone apps… and it appropriately shared Ephesians 6 where it talks about putting on the armor of God. That passage encourages us to ‘learn how to apply them’… in other words…

know your armor and train with it.

In the Message translation it says,
“God’s Word is an indispensable weapon.”

When my oldest was young he loved Bible-Man. It was a silly show about a super-hero who would ‘literally’ put on the armor of God and fight against the schemes of the evil character. He had his sword – looked like a cheap light-saber 😉 – and as Bible-Man battled against the bad guy and their swords clashed… Bible-Man would quote scripture.

I have done this so many times in my own life…
In the heat of the battle – I will literally quote scripture to claim God’s truth when everything around me might seem to point to the contrary.

Sometimes it is the only thing I can do…
and although I underestimate it often – there is POWER in God’s Word friends!

How can we use this ‘indispensable’ weapon if we don’t know how to use it?

How can we claim God’s Word in the middle of the battle if we haven’t trained our hearts and minds to know it?

In Romans 12 we are to not be conformed to this world… but, instead to be transformed. How? By the renewing of our MIND…
Focus our minds on scripture and His Word.
Memorize it.
Hide it in our hearts.
It is our life-line in battle…
It is our OFFENSE and DEFENSE.
Sometimes it is all we can do but quote scripture to the face of a struggle.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2

In this journey… when the calm comes – I don’t want to be deceived to believe that the battle is over. As much as I wish it were – and as much as I can rest in knowing that someday it will be, this is not the day.

Our enemy is still seeking to devour and if I think for a minute that he is giving me a break – I am not seeing truth.

In these days, I will train.

…Focusing my mind on His amazing truth and the life found in His Word… hiding it in my heart.
Teaching my children to hide it in their heart’s.
And when the storm comes, we will have been trained and not be surprised by the waves.

Will you train with me?