“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.”
2 Tim. 2:3-4
In accepting Christ as Lord, we become members of God’s family and soldiers of the Cross. 24/7, we must live as such – sons and soldiers. We however cannot fulfil a ‘military’ mandate with a ‘civilian’ mindset or lifestyle. We need to embrace the disciplined lifestyle of a soldier and this requires a mindset that makes no provision to indulge the flesh; a mindset that compels our souls to reject and be emptied of emotions and personality nuances that weaken, distract, derail and leave us ineffective in the pursuit of purpose – emotions like:
– self-pity & self-condemnation
– worry, fear & anxiety
– envy & jealousy
– anger and rage
– bitterness & unforgiveness;
and of character flaws like:
– haughtiness & arrogance
– laziness
– talkativeness
– lies & dishonesty
– sexual immoralities
– gossip & back-stabbing
– disloyalties & betrayals
– rudeness & disrespect, etc.
We must, as Apostle Paul testified of himself in 1 Corinthians 9:27, discipline our ‘bodies’, our tongue, our cravings, our attitudes & moods and bring them all into subjection, lest, when we have preached to others, we ourselves should become disqualified.
Shalom!
CNO