Stand

13 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. Ephesians 6

When reading through my study bible, an interesting point was made about these verses.  The war that is being waged is not a full scale war like we've seen in history.  There are not large battlefields with hundreds or thousands of casualties.  This is an individual war.  We are all footsoldiers, called to stand our ground, and we each fight our own separate battle.

Think about it.  It's not just a struggle for your soul between God and the devil, it's an all out war.  Both sides are putting everything they have into you.  One side wants to make you fall, and the other wants you to stand.  It's simple, really.

We are called to stand our ground.  Then, after we do everything, we're called to stand.  That's it.  Just stand.  We may be exhausted and unable to walk, unable to speak, unable to raise our hands in prayer, but we can remain standing.  God takes care of the rest.  He's there to handle everything else when all we can do is stand.

The last time I sang at church, we sang "Never Once."  While we were singing, I looked out into the congregation and my eyes fell on a mother.  She was standing with her eyes closed and both arms raised straight up in front of her.  I looked down and saw her two children clutching their arms around her waist.  One of them was looking out and had an expression on their face of, "I don't know what to do," but the image and the words struck me.  We are those children.  We may not know what to do, we may be lost and overwhelmed, but God's always there for us and to help us stand.  We can lean on him and he'll know how to provide us what we need and take care of us.

Never once did we ever walk alone

Never once did You leave us on our own

You are faithful, God, You are faithful