The Battle Continues . . .

Sometimes we are blessed, and yet we remain convinced that we are of all men most miserable. It's not an accident that this happens. It seems with great consistency, whenever we do our best for God, we are attacked. The Devil's favorite technique is to convince us that we are completely ineffective and alone in our efforts. I am amazed that we still are such easy prey for this, myself not only included, but at the head of the line. I mean after a spiritual high, you walk the battlegrounds waiting for an all out attack, and you hear nothing but crickets. Unusual silence. Making the fight seem irrelevant, and the efforts seem in vain. It is at this point when it seems it should be the easiest to go on, we find going on close to impossible. We desire some measure of result, and when we can't clearly see whether we are doing any good we find our situation sometimes hopeless.

So, before we all crawl into a hole, what do we do about it? Remember that we are in a fight, and discouragement is one of the things that we have to fight. Look, if you throw up your hands in disgust and walk away, you are vulnerable to every kind of evil temptation; and if you have checked out spiritually, in a very short time you can ruin your testimony. We fight against the powers of the darkness of this world, of course they want you to think that you are ineffective and doing no good. It is not a trot through a field of daisies, it is a fight! Get up and fight! Do you know that God is greater than any enemy we face? Do you know that God is our ever present help in time of trouble? Do you know that He will never leave us or forsake us? So, even if you are by yourself, you are not alone: the Maker of Heaven and Earth is with you and for you.

If you are waiting for the things to get easier, let me save you some trouble: things are hard now, and they are going to get harder. Discouragement is going to come, and it ought not to sideline us, but to cause us to cry out to God in our distress. God will always help us, comfort us and fight for us. The days that it is the hardest to get up and keep going are the days that it is most important to get up and keep going. Always pressing on for Jesus' sake; knowing that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.