Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  2024  Day 142

May 21;       2 Timothy 2:4;        198/260;        ‘Engaged in Warfare’

2 Timothy 2:4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

Our Lord Jesus enlisted us to be a soldier for Him when we became born again.  In Ephesians 3 we are told that we are in the family of God.  In the family, everyone is equal.  Jesus has no favorites, we are all loved the same and all of the blessings that belong to us because we are Christians belong to every believer equally.  This verse teaches that we are also in the army of God.  This is a very different relationship with the Lord.  In the Lord’s army we all start out the same, ‘privates.’  We train and leave basic training, each soldier given a specific job we are to do in the army.  If you have been a Christian for any time, it is clear that there is a war going on.  The war is for the eternal destiny of humanity.  What this verse is saying is the will of God is, that we train hard, forget about civilian life, and get very proficient in what we have been called to do and trained for.  We do all of this to please Jesus Christ, our Commanding Officer.  In the real world, it does not always happen this way.  Willingness to give our ‘marching orders’ the priority a soldier should have, does not always occur.  The importance an individual soldier has for what he or she has been called to do varies.  We all still have our own private life to lead, families, secular work and things we enjoy to do.  Taking care of these things are important to the Lord as well.  But we are always on duty as a soldier in the Lord’s army.  Look to use what you have trained for with the Word and prayer to win the battle for the destiny of others.  No warfare is more vital.