Good morning, world. Things are looking pretty good from the front porch of my farm in Virginia today. It’s the first day of a new week and when I met with the Living God at daybreak my heart was already heavy. It felt almost as if I crawled into His presence desperately looking for hope; and Hope is what I found. It’s not my life that burdens my soul these days and it’s not my circumstances that have the potential to rob me of my peace and my hope. It’s life all around me that troubles my soul…a world so dark that the oppression is almost a tangible. With so much tragedy going on in the world around me, it’s not easy for me to keep my own Balance or to sustain my own sense of Hope. Sometimes I wake-up with a burden for this world, and when I do; it takes a little extra work to find what I need to face this life on this new day. I KNOW that ALL that I need…all of my Peace and my Strength and my Courage and my Joy can ONLY be found through Him. So, instead of wringing my hands about these things that trouble me; I run to my God. Isn’t that the way you deal with life sometimes too?

It’s so easy to become discouraged and to lose hope when we’re surrounded by tragedy; especially if we don’t understand where it comes from. Hundreds of innocent people shot over here and dozens of people shot over there. Innocent people run over by a truck on a busy street like yesterdays trash. Young girls being swept off and away from their families and robbed of their innocence forever. Millions of people consumed by addiction that has robbed their entire family of peace, and that may ultimately rob them of life. Parents and teachers doing unspeakable things to innocent children and parents taking the lives of their own children just to get even with the other. There’s no end to the tragedy, and it takes its toll on all of us; especially when we know that we are to strive each day to have the compassion of Christ, and if we determine to “love our neighbors” as ourselves. We aren’t instructed to extend compassion just to those we deem worthy, and we aren’t called to love just the “nice guys”. IF we don’t understand where the tragedies in this dark world REALLY comes from, and if we don’t know how to do our part to battle against it; it will discourage us and consume us and rob us of our Hope and our Peace as surely as we breathe. Just like any good soldier, if we’re going to Win the Battle the we need to understand who our Enemy really is and we need to recognize HIS part in the tragedies. It’s understanding where the tragedy in this life really comes from that leads us to the Direction of Hope through it all.

It’s nearly impossible to remember that the people doing those dark things that lead to unimaginable tragedies in our world are not the enemy at all. They may be pulling the trigger and they may doing the harm to the innocent, but they’re just being used by their commanding officer. The Bible says that “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm”. We’re in full force Spiritual War that takes place in a place that we can’t see with the human eye, but it’s being played our right before our eyes through tragedy after tragedy. Unfortunately, the battle against “good and evil” will get much worse before it Ends. So, if we’re going to do battle against this dark world, there’s only One Way to fight…we Fight like the Warriors we are called AND INSTRUCTED to be. We don’t need our own guns (yes, I have more than one) and we don’t need bombs to fight this fight. Our Marching Orders for this horrific time in history, in a world that is filled to the brim with tragedy after tragedy, have already been made known to us by my Commanding Officer. Better yet, we can be confident that we WILL WIN this Battle if we don’t forget how to fight it and if we never lose sight of the enemy’s schemes.

I may have dragged myself into His presence this morning and I may have temporarily let the tragedies of this dark world to discourage me, but I’m armed and I’m ready now and I’m confident that WE WIN all over again. I have Hope and Peace and Strength for it all. How about you?

MARCHING ORDERS FOR WAR:

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.