I ran across another great quote from a ways back (St John Climacus). I thought it would be good to share it with other men. “Let us charge into the good fight with joy and love without being afraid of our enemies” In a day when a man can easily get defensive about his walk with Jesus and negative about the condition of the culture, these words are a great reminder. It reminds me of Psalm 149:6, “May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands.” The implication seems to be that men going into battle needing to have a positive attitude, enabling them to praise God while in battle. That is a great attitude to have for battle. What is our attitude in the conflicts of our day?
Men, there is no doubt that we are in a fight. Paul reminds Timothy to, “Fight the good fight of the faith” (I Tim. 6:12). The Message tells us, “This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels” (Eph 6:11). We are in a serious fight!! Rev 12:12 give us a warning about the enemy that we face spiritually. “But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” (Rev. 12:13). The enemy has a lot of energy for the fight because his time is short. It could be that warfare against biblical Christianity is intensifying in our culture.
So how will we fight. The quote from St John Climacus tells us we are to fight with joy and love, while not be afraid of our enemies. I believe strongly that men can not fight spiritually as they once did when there was a Christian consensus in our culture. Culture is no longer sympathetic nor open to biblical truth. So a direct, confrontational approach will not work. There are many folks who have “tuned out” religion, while still be open spiritually. Any man who is negative, judgmental, with a critical spirit will not be heard. He will probably do more damage then good.
So fighting a good fight will mean having a positive attitude toward others. The enemy hates joy and love. When you love your enemy, you are fighting with a powerful weapon. Whoever heard of a warrior loving his opponent. Being joyful in the battle is counter intuitive to warfare. You can’t get more positive then being joyful in battle. Love and joy are so powerful because they are in such short supply in our culture A critical and negative spirit only drives people away. So my encouragement to each man reading this blog is to do an “attitude check.” Ask God for grace to go into battle with praise and a heart that is joyful (positive attitude) and loving (compassionate to others).
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