"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
A soldier whether in days gone by or in the times we live in, is one who is trained to endure tough conditions. A soldier is trained to be able to survive extremes in weather, a hostile environment or whatever condition he faces. A soldier is not a whiner. A soldier does whatever is necessary to survive. He carries whatever he needs with him and even if he loses it, he is trained to forage for whatever he needs to survive.
The Bible is full of reminders that as long as we call ourselves Christians, we have been enlisted into God's army and are therefore soldiers. We however seem to have forgotten that or we seem not to be too interested in being soldiers. When adverse situations come our way, all we seem to want to do is curl up and cry and moan. We also seem all to ready to look for someone to blame when things go wrong.
Paul was speaking to Timothy and he told him to endure hardness. Hardness there is synonymous with suffering, persecution, criticism, hate; you name it. Because we are not of this world people will not always agree with the things we believe. And because we live in a fallen world, bad things will happen. Our response should not be moaning and looking for who's to blame. Our response should be that of the resourceful soldier. Take the hit but get the wound cleaned, learn from the situation and then move on. Or else we will be stuck in one spot moaning about how hard and bad life is instead of moving on to fulfil the purpose God has for our lives. Life is too short to be fixated on perceived wrongs.
A soldier whether in days gone by or in the times we live in, is one who is trained to endure tough conditions. A soldier is trained to be able to survive extremes in weather, a hostile environment or whatever condition he faces. A soldier is not a whiner. A soldier does whatever is necessary to survive. He carries whatever he needs with him and even if he loses it, he is trained to forage for whatever he needs to survive.
The Bible is full of reminders that as long as we call ourselves Christians, we have been enlisted into God's army and are therefore soldiers. We however seem to have forgotten that or we seem not to be too interested in being soldiers. When adverse situations come our way, all we seem to want to do is curl up and cry and moan. We also seem all to ready to look for someone to blame when things go wrong.
Paul was speaking to Timothy and he told him to endure hardness. Hardness there is synonymous with suffering, persecution, criticism, hate; you name it. Because we are not of this world people will not always agree with the things we believe. And because we live in a fallen world, bad things will happen. Our response should not be moaning and looking for who's to blame. Our response should be that of the resourceful soldier. Take the hit but get the wound cleaned, learn from the situation and then move on. Or else we will be stuck in one spot moaning about how hard and bad life is instead of moving on to fulfil the purpose God has for our lives. Life is too short to be fixated on perceived wrongs.
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