Soldiers

As I read today in Philippians 2 I was drawn to verse 25 where Paul writes:

"But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphrodites, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs."

After reading that passage and seeing the word soldier in Paul's writing it made me think. Paul was not a soldier in the sense that we commonly associate the word. When I here soldier I think of a Roman centurion, or a Spartan, or a Marine. But that's not the type of soldier Paul was referring to himself as. He was referring to them being soldiers in the army of God.

The Greek meaning of this word is "an associate in labours and conflicts for the cause of Christ."

When I read that I couldn't help but think about ourselves and our need and calling to spread the message of Christ and to make disciples. The language that Paul uses here shows us that the carrying out of the Great Commission is not going to be simple. It is going to be tough and hard fought in order to accomplish the goals God has given us.

With that being said we are in great need of making sure we are always prepared for a battle, much like all the soldiers that come in to my head when I think of the word. They are always prepared to go to war at a moments notice. Are we?

See in Ephesians 6:10-20 Paul talks about our need for the armor of God. Armor, another thing that a soldier needs for battle.

These two passages together show us that there is a huge battle going on everyday for the souls of people. And we need to be readily prepared to go to battle at any moment in our day. The hardest part of all of this is found in verse 12 of Ephesians 6, " For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

If our battle was against flesh and blood, we would be able to readily see our enemy. We would be able to see them from a distance as they move in to attack. But we don't have that advantage in out spiritual warfare. We are unable to see them with our physical eyes, but we need to train to see them with our spiritual eyes.

We need to be true soldiers who are covered in the armor of God.

We need to be prepared at all times to go in to battle for what we believe and what we know is true. And that is the message of Jesus Christ

I want to challenge all of you, including myself, to get in the word of God and learn to put on the armor of God each and every day. We are all soldiers! We are all in standby, ready to go into battle at any moment. So are we prepared? Are we ready?

If not, let's start on a process in which we will prepare ourselves like a true soldier.

These are the things we need for battle: "Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God"

We are given all these things as we begin to dig deeper into the word of God and spend time praying and listening to Him. I want to challenge you all to take an hour a day and read the Bible and spend time praying and asking God to make sure you are prepared for anything that the enemy, the devil, might through at you as a weapon of war.

This is of utmost importance. Seek God in all parts of life!