Encouragement For God's Weary Soldiers

Soldiers gather on the outskirts of a city. There are about two hundred of them gathered there, though other groups of faithful fighters are gathered in other places, some out in the woods encamped around fires, others in facilities deep within the cities.

These soldiers are beat up, bruised, weapons still hot from combat. They've been fighting a long time. They've been fighting for years. War takes it's toll on soldiers. They are tired, exhausted, and low in morale.

These are soldiers of the spiritual war for the souls of humanity taking place across the western world today. And I'm one of them. Gathered with my band of heroes, out in the sticks fighting a long, taxing war.

We aren't winning, in fact our nation is ablaze with destruction. But still we fight on. We don't give up. But some of us, myself included, have become very tired. We've sorrowful from the battle. Our hands are shaking from the trauma of it. We want rest. We want the battle to end. We want things to be different.

These wants are not bad things. But the war will continue. We all have to understand that, and wrestle with that, and then keep going. We have to refocus in this battle. We have to find a new footing for this battle. Because our current attitude of bitterness, of grief, of lostness, of brokenness is not a solid footing to stand on.

It's not uncommon for a soldier to feel this way. We're gathered around fires, thuds in the distance, storm clouds brewing in the mountains.

I was weary from the battle, bruised, and bitter, many troops who had battled with me had departed, though others joined with me, I felt exhausted, cold, and empty, and I longed for peace. But I realized that God was saying to me, "I'm with you in the battle." But God was also saying to me, you haven't kept your mind and heart on me. I had begun to disregard prayer. I had begun to lose some of my faith. I had allowed my heart to get a bit hard on the edges. I said to myself, what's the use?

I had taken big tag boards and written names, of people in the area where I served and prayed for them night and day for years, and I looked at the boards and realized most of them, if not nearly all of them, were not with the Lord, very little had changed in their lives. And I was discouraged. I was losing heart.

Ten years of battle I thought to myself and what has been gained? Not nearly what I'd hoped. Not nearly what I'd dreamed. But there had been victories, many victories in fact. But also defeats. Defeats are part of war. It's all part of what happens on Earth. Particularly in America many people don't want God. They feel like they have everything they need. They don't want to listen. That's hard on us, fighting day and night for them to turn to Christ. It's devastating to see them reject Jesus. However, when we get down, and depressed, and sullen, we start to focus on the negative, and not the positive. So we need a change of mind, from the Holy Spirit, and I'm praying in Jesus Christ name, that this will happen now for you.

First, we need to adjust our entire mindset on this battlefield. We need to focus on Jesus Christ our glorious, victorious savior full of perfect love and grace and truth, and find refreshment for our souls. That's the first thing we've got to do, get our eyes off our problems, off our hearts, and onto the perfect Jesus Christ, the true King of the Earth, the Lord of all, and rejoice in his current total victory. We may see defeats, but our victory is so very secure. Others may reject it, we have not. And so our victory is secure. Other have their sacred choice to make. We can't help it if they make the wrong one, that's their sacred choice. But we must keep our eyes on Jesus. I don't mean that as simple encouragement. I mean, as a matter of survival itself, you must, must, must keep your eyes on Jesus. Your salvation depends on it. So do it. He is victorious. Keep your eyes on that complete victor King Jesus, or you will lose heart and give up.

Psalm 123:1 "A Song of Ascents. To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!"

Hebrews 12:2 "Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."