Toy Soldiers

Do you ever remember toy soldiers when you were a child? Not army men but something similar to those the ones from our childhood stories that stood tall and straight but unmoving, unyielding?

Some of us are just like those very same toy soldiers going about our day to day lives thinking that we are quite literally standing on the top of the world and nothing can knock us down. Yet we are lulled into the false sense of security because the enemy does not come when we are standing guard, waiting for the full on attack.

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV).

So we must always be prepared for those ordinary days when the enemy will come around prowling. Let us take two very different circumstances to see just how that can play out in the real world.

On September 11, 2001, we can all recall just where we were that day. It would be a day that would impact our country forever and still does to this day. Evil become personified that day when so many would lose their lives while we laid completely unaware of what was going on around us. We weren't prepared for that day.

Yet on December 31, 1999, the world prepared for what we all felt would cripple us around the globe and our economies. Y2K! For months, banks and financial institutions met with computer programmers to determine if their systems would fail or stand firm. At 11:59pm the final seconds ticked by and what happened? Nothing. The day came and went and nothing failed as predicted by so many.

It reminds me of the song Toy soldiers from the 80's and the word are this:

"Step by step,
heart to heart
left, right, left,
we all fall down, like toy soldiers.

Bit by bit,
torn apart,
we never win,
but the battle wages on
for toy soldiers"

So what does this mean for us? It's simple do we want to be like toy soldiers that can fall down easily or do we want to become spiritual prayer warriors which understand that to prevail against an enemy we must become equipped with armor, sword, shield and helmets to prevent falling like toy soldiers against the enemy.

Satan waits for the ordinary moments and days to wage war against us. We must stand guard daily or we shall fall. The great news, is that we can pick ourselves back up again and do battle another day. Yet wouldn't it be better to prepare daily against those attacks?

So what is the Christian's armor exactly.

We all need to put on God's full armor. Then on the day of evil you will be able to stand strong. And when you have finished the whole fight, you will still be standing. So stand strong with the Belt of Truth tied around your waist, and the protection of right living on your chest, On Your feet, wear the Good News of peace to help you stand strong. And also the Shield of faith with which you can stop all of the burning arrows of the Evil One. Accept God's salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times with all kinds of prayers, asking for everything you need.

This is why we need to stand grounded in doing God's will and living our lives as Jesus would want us to as we are able. He doesn't expect perfection. Only He could do that, but He set an example during those 33 years He walked among us that we can use as our guide on how we should be trying to live our lives each day.

You know what...the closer we are to Him, the easier it is to stay close, to avoid being picked off by the enemy and to spend time reading His word each day. Commit it to memory so that we can hide it in our heart for when the enemy comes crawling. Jesus used the Word of God when Satan came to tempt Him in the desert.

Let us not become like Toy Soldiers that can fall down.

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Giveaway Update for Should We Fire God?

I just wanted to let you all know the winners of the copies of the book Should We Fire God and they are:

Marj at Frugal Tumbleweed Acres
Denise at Free to Be Me
Kurt at Some Things I Have Learned

Congratulations to all of you and please email me with your mailing information so I can get these out to all of you.

Everyone else, please keep entering to win. Sometimes there aren't that many people entering so it makes your chances even better. All the giveaways are on the right hand side bar, just click on the ones you want to enter and leave me a comment. That is all there is too it. Lot's more to come next week!