To most people Memorial Day brings to mind barbeque and leisure fun with friends and family. To veterans of wars it brings back horrific memories that are best forgotten; (if only they could be forgotten).
I tuned in to the news yesterday and watched the grisly scene of war unfolding in Syria and saw the bodies of 32 children being lowered into a shallow grave in a mass burial. They had been slaughtered in just one day by Assad’s army. Tanks were rumbling through neighborhoods blasting away at civilians and men with machine guns were shooting anyone that moved. Frightened people were running for their lives screaming in terror and hoping against hope that they wouldn’t die with the next shot.
In this country many of us seem to have grown numb to war; after all it’s posted all over the news virtually any night, and after a while the mangled bodies and bloody corpses are pretty much taken in stride. But to those who are engaged in it, sometimes for years at a time, it is gruesome, frightening, and terrible and was perhaps best described in a speech by General William Tecumseh Sherman way back in the 1800’s when he stated: “Some of you young men think that war is all glamour and glory, but let me tell you, boys, it is all hell!”
Hmmm….The Bible uses that word “war” to describe our daily battle with satanic forces. Personally I don’t think the Holy Spirit chose that word at random. As with all things I’ve encountered in the Bible, these particular words seem to be very carefully selected. If anything war was even more horrific in the times the Bible was written. Men used hand to hand combat with razor sharp swords, clubs, and spears to kill and maim each other and it was blood and gore to its zenith. War is, and was, and will always be, hell!
I think God wanted us to understand that wars are not won without fighting for our very lives. General Petreaus said that “War is hard and hard all of the time”. This seasoned General knows firsthand the appalling, sickening, feeling of being in the midst of the terror of war and how difficult it is to fight throughout each and every day of it, but he also knows that perseverance is what it takes to be victorious.
He and other Generals also know that an army must be properly equipped with the best resources. God in His infinite wisdom told us the same thing. He was very clear that the enemy that we face is formidable. It is led by the second most powerful creature ever created by God and he has an army of 1/3 of the angels in heaven at his disposal; (a number that is innumerable). All were created higher than us and have powers that we don’t have.
While you might think that facing an army like that is simply overwhelming and all will be lost, the Bible states that we can be victorious; not through our own power but through the power of Christ. We are instructed to put on the “full armor of God” daily. It consists of prayer, Bible study, fellowship with other Christians, faith, and righteousness, (doing the right thing instead of the wrong), and most importantly salvation which consists of a covering of our sins with the blood of Christ.
This is not something we are told to do every once in a while; we are to put on this armor DAILY if we hope to be victorious. The Bible tells us that we can rout the satanic army and have them “flee” from us like scared rabbits, provided we don the full armor of God daily. If we try to stand alone; we will fail.
Bottom line: In God we can succeed; apart from Him we will surely fail. So have you prayed, read your Bible, talked about spiritual matters with a brother or sister in Christ, polished your faith, and covered your sins with Christ’s blood by asking forgiveness yet today? If not do so, and then go out and enjoy some barbeque and watermelon!
Proverbs 21:30
There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.