Holy Father, I am sorry for whining and complaining so much. I forgot for a moment who You are and what You have made me. In the heat of the conflict, I forgot that no weapon, no blow, no scheme, and no assault of the enemy can prosper against me. The enemy is not trying to defeat me; if he was, his job would be easy. He is trying to defeat You, and it will never happen. I will see this battle through to the end, Lord Jesus. Victory is mine because of You.

You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

Were you ever in the armed forces? Let me phrase that a little more specifically. Have you ever been in a war?

Our problem as saints is that we do not understand that we are in a war. If you fought in the rice paddies or jungles of Vietnam, then you know what it is like to sleep in the field. You had to contend with all kinds of exotic bugs and snakes crawling over your body at night, but you knew they came with the territory—you were in a war. You were not foolish enough to holler about those bugs and snakes, because you knew you might get shot—your complaint would give away your location to the unseen Vietcong lurking nearby.

Too many of us like to holler at the top of our lungs every time we get a little bug-bitten or feel something cold and slimy slither across our toes. I am telling you that you are going to get hit! Your complaints are music to Satan’s pointed ears. They tell him that his weapons are hitting home. Naturally, he just starts pouring it on from that point!

God fights the battle, but do not think that you are going to come through this war without any scratches or scrapes. Do not howl, whine, or complain. Just get up, take your stand to continue the fight, and let Jesus Christ end the conflict! What a way to fight a war!