But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
Job 16:5 (NIV)
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with Attitude by Cathy Vinson |
Any soldier knows he must arm himself for battle. He will not add to his arms anything that will hinder, weigh down, or become a liability as he pursues the cause. We are told we are armed when we have a certain attitude: "Since Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves also the same attitude." We can be armed and prepared for the coming battle by a readiness to suffer. Sometimes our enemy, in all our comforts, becomes ourselves. We listen more and more to the demands of our bodies than anything else. Often the biggest battle is leaving our love of comforts so not to idolize it over Jesus. We owe NOTHING to the evil nature to obey its lust. We've already spent enough time there (1 Pet 4:3). "Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever increasing wickedness, so NOW offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness" (Rom 6:19). Is such a serious outlook really armor? Or is an ever-readiness to suffer a certain type of morbidity that weighs down the human spirit resulting in a pessimistic view? Naturally, this would seem to be the case. "The end of all things is near" (1 Pet 4:7). Such readiness is a condition that will aid us, because ironically we are then free! Opportunities to compromise await us in the coming days. "Arm yourselves...because he who has suffered in his (own) body is done with sin" (1 Pet 4:1). |
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"arm yourselves..." (1 Peter 4:1) |
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