A devotional by Brave Author Shannon McNear
Wars and rumors of wars. The news has been filled with it this month. So was my personal life.
It’s been on my mind how full scripture is with military metaphors, and for good reason. Any way you
look at it, we’re surrounded by warfare.
We are hammered daily with doubt and discouragement. Battered by the temptation to jealousy or
anger.
Our children sometimes only need to walk into the same room as a sibling for war to break out. Never
mind what they face when stepping into the four walls of school.
Hurt and heartbreak come from all sides. Sometimes it’s a stray image we see, other times it’s God
putting us in a place to perform a task we do not understand, to fulfill a purpose we cannot see.
Interesting that earlier this month marked the Jewish new year, known as Rosh Hashanah, or the Feast
of Trumpets. A trumpet—a shofar, or ram’s horn, in ancient Biblical times, not the brass thing we know
today—could be used as a call to worship or to sound an alarm. Heaven knows we have plenty to
worship God for, or to warn others about. So often, though, I find myself so distracted with the battle
within, I forget to both worship and warn.
And what am I fighting? Most of the time, it’s my own nature—that impulse to respond to situations and
other people out of pride or selfishness. What’s up for debate is how often I’m influenced by the very
real enemy of our souls.
That isn’t to say every difficulty we experience is spiritual warfare. Or is it? If the core of the problem is a
“disturbance in the Force”—meaning we’re either out of alignment with the Spirit of God, we’re being
“leaned on” by something beyond ourselves, or it’s otherwise traceable to spiritual factors, then by all
means, yes, we can call it that.
People offer all sorts of advice or seeming solutions, but this is something we’re more or less bound to
face every day of our lives. One thing that I heard years ago, which has always stayed with me, is that
while we grow up hearing strains of “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” it’s enough—no, more than
enough—just to stand.
And how can that be? Well, as I was reminded this past weekend, we do not fight FOR a position of
victory. We are fighting FROM a position of victory. Christ has already done the work on the Cross.
When He spoke the words, “It is finished,” redemption became an immutable reality. His resurrection
only sealed it.
No matter what might conspire to distract us from the truth of that.
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole
armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not
wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of
the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore
take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having
done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6, NKJV)
Shannon McNear loves losing herself in local history. A Midwestern farm girl who lived in Charleston, South Carolina, for more than two decades before being transplanted to North Dakota, she’s a military wife, mother of 8, and a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Faith, Hope, & Love Christian Writers. When not cooking, researching, or leaking story from her fingertips, she enjoys being outdoors, basking in the beauty of the northern prairies.
