Ready for Battle

This weekend we drove up to North Carolina. My youngest son, Brent, was being deployed to Afghanistan. It seemed like just yesterday he was playing war with little plastic soldiers on the living room floor. Now he is the soldier in a war across the sea. No games. The real deal.

On the way up to say goodbye, memories of him as a little child flooded my mind. He never wanted to put his hand in his food like most babies or finger paint like many toddlers. He never liked to get dirty. Now he will be lucky to shower once a week. Unlike many young children, Brent loved his sleep. Friends would complain that their 2 year old wouldn’t take a nap and Brent would sleep 3 or 4 hours. Now he will go hours and perhaps days without sleep. As a child, Brent loved to eat. Anything that came his way. Now he will eat military issued meals in a plastic bag.

But, Brent has been well prepared for the battle ahead. He has been through many months of long training. When they are not being sent off to war, they are continually preparing for battle. They practice firing their weapons, so when the time comes that they really need to shoot, they are prepared. They go through psychological training so that if they are captured by the enemy, they are as mentally prepared as possible. They are armed with the weapons they will need for the fight. Machine gun, helmet, bullet proof jackets, night goggles, steel toed boots and on and on. A full suit of armor.

Many times, the young Marines would complain about the constant training they had to do. But those who are over them; those with first hand experience in war, know that their very life or the lives of others is dependent on their training.

God wants us to be in constant training. To read His word, to study, to practice, to prepare ourselves for battle. For the battles will come. They might not be overseas. They might just be right here in our own home. An enemy named loneliness, worry, illness or disease, loss of job, loss of a home, rebellious children, aging parents....

God has given us the weapons and a full suit of armor for our battle. “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of battle comes you may be able to stand your ground. “ (Ephesians 6:13)
What will we do with them? When the time comes, will we be ready? Will we know how to use them? Our life or the lives of others could very well depend on it.

If you are in the midst of a battle right now, I encourage you to pull out the weapons God has given you for the fight. Arm yourself. Start with His Word. Open it up. Read it. Draw strength from it. You don’t have to battle alone. God is more than capable of handling any enemy that comes your way!

His Voice

This morning I pulled into the parking garage of the hospital. It was about 5:30 and still dark. There wasn’t anyone in the garage. I opened my car door to get my lunch box out and all of a sudden a loud deep voice bellowed out, “Step back! You are too close to this vehicle! Step Back!

It scared me out of my skin. I turned around and noticed that the warning was coming from the vehicle next to me. There was no one in the vehicle, but apparently I got too close and there was a special alarm set to scare the fool out of anyone coming too close. After I got my heart rate back down in the normal range, I started the walk into work. There was a light, cool breeze and the smell of rain in the air.

Later in the morning, one of the little babies I was caring for, got his breathing tube taken out and we heard him cry for the first time. I immediately thought about how God speaks to us.

There are times when He speaks with a soft, gentle voice in the rustle of the breeze, in the sweet song of a little bird or in the cry of a tiny baby.

But sometimes God’s voice is like the voice that bellowed out of the vehicle in the parking lot. When we are headed in the wrong direction. When we are wandering out of His will and into areas of trouble, He shouts, “Step Back! You are too close to trouble!” The bible says His voice “shakes the desert”(Ps. 29:8), “strikes with flashes of lightning” (Ps. 29:7) and “strips the oak and strips the forests bare.” (Ps. 29:9).

Whether a gentle whisper or a loud bellow, God does speak to us. I confess at times I have chosen not to listen because it’s not what I wanted to hear. Other times I have filled my life with too much noise to hear. But, because He loves me, He still speaks. He will warn me when I am headed in the wrong direction because He loves me. He will fill my heart with joy at the cry of a tiny baby, because He loves me.

Have you heard Him today? Is He shouting a loud warning or whispering a soft “I love you”. Shhh. Listen. Hear His voice. He’s calling you by name.

The Puzzle

On Sunday, I heard a devotional about puzzles and it seemed as though God was speaking directly to me. As I listened, I thought back to the weekly chemo sessions at MD Anderson. There was always a large puzzle on the table in the waiting room. There were usually many pieces upside down and scattered around the table. People would pass by and try to work on it. Carl always liked to try and fit a piece or two in while we were waiting.

I never really had the patience for puzzles. I could work them only if the box with the completed picture was right there next to it. If I couldn’t see the picture, I didn’t want to mess with it.

I thought about the times in our lives that seem like one big, uncompleted puzzle. The puzzle seems large. There are so many little pieces and they are scattered everywhere. We don’t have the picture on the box to see what it will look like when it’s finished.

Are you in a situation where the puzzle pieces seem all jumbled up? Where there seems to be way too many pieces? Where you can’t see the picture of the completed puzzle?

God has promised us that He will complete the puzzle. He sees the full picture. “Now being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you, will carry it on to completion” (Phillipians 1:6). We just have to press on, one piece at a time, trusting that when God is finished every piece will fit together perfectly and the picture will be perfectly clear.