Today’s devotional is about fighting naked. The lesson can be delivered in one word – DON’T.
There! How’s THAT for a quick lesson. ? (For those who want more, read on.)
On any given day, there are a number of fighting matches being fought in boxing rings, MMA cages, karate and judo dojos or training halls all over the world. Day after day armies are training their soldiers in combat, both with firearms and in hand-to-hand combat. One common factor in all of these training scenarios is this — they ALL will be teaching you to use every tool and technique available to win the victory.
The tougher battles and stronger enemies require better conditioning, greater training and, in some cases, specialized weapons. US Special Forces operators, for example, train to be able to carry over a hundred pounds of gear and specialized weapons and equipment for significant distances … and THEN take the battle to the enemy.
No elite warrior nor any of the fighting forces in the world take the approach to ignore prep, leave your gear, forget a strategy, just walk in and give it your best shot. No boxer “trains” for a fight by eating donuts and streaming silly cat videos. The reason no one ever takes this approach is because they enter the battles TO WIN THEM !!!!! Not just to fight them.
The time to prepare for a battle is BEFORE it happens. Armies train their soldiers BEFORE sending them to engage the enemy. If an enemy should invade, the people who are pressed into service to defend their homes will fare better if they have prepared themselves. You want to do everything possible to increase your odds of winning because some battles are existential, and one cannot always tell in advance which ones they are.
So we prepare. We train. Because the battle is certain, only the time and place of each engagement are unknown.
Learn how to pray. Communication with HQ and support is critical. Prayer in its simplest form is simple and easy communication with God. So simple a child can do it. But it can and ought to develop, it must. You can (and should) learn by studying prayer in the bible. [[NOTE: If you want a list of prayers from the bible that I regularly pray, just message me and I will send them to you.]] You can also read books on prayer, and books about men and women who were great pray – ers. But you will learn most when you actually begin to pray yourself. Reading a book about swimming will not develop the same skills as actually getting in the water.
Learn about the weapons of our warfare in the spirit. Our verse for today deals with the command to put on the full armor of God. In Ephesians, Paul the Apostle lists several elements of our armor. Do you know about them? Do you “put them on” each day? If not, then you are going into the battle unprepared.
As I said, today’s devotional is about fighting naked. The lesson can be delivered in one word – DON’T.
