“Cover your face!” “Shelter in place!” You must either join the hoards tearing down our heritage and freedoms or cower in order to “stay safe”… resistance is futile.

I grew up singing rousing old hymns like “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “Soldiers of Christ Arise.” It was great fun to march around the sanctuary in Sunday school, but as a child I never gave a thought to the real spiritual warfare going on around us.

In recent times the conflict in the invisible realm has become more and more overt, spilling into our everyday lives in ways we cannot ignore.

In a spiritual battle there can be no conscientious objectors. We are either striving against the foe or we are giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

It is time for each believer to don the armor of God and step into the field of combat.

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.…

Ephesians 6:16-17 (Berean Study Bible)

If you are like me, conflict makes you uncomfortable. Christians are a people of peace, loving our neighbors and praying for our enemies. Enlisting in the Army of God doesn’t change that. We are being called to read and study the Bible, pray fervently for God’s perfect will to be done, and to support our brothers and sisters in Christ in every way we can.

We can go boldly into this fray, fearless because we follow a great leader.

But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world

1 John 4:4 (New Living Translation)

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31 (New International Version)