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The Way of the Warrior
The Way of the Warrior
Day 5 • 1 of 5
Devotional
Listen to this audio devotional now in the Bible App.
THE WARRIOR STANDS IN THE PAIN

The warrior stands in their pain. Their wounds are their badge of honor. Every battle is first fought within. Every victory secured for your future is first fought for in your struggle for faith. To live in the light, you must first face your inner darkness. Your external battles are won or lost in your inner world. You cannot separate world peace from inner peace.

The battles we fight become inescapably both internal and external. Victory in one battle does not secure us victory in another. You may be winning the battle within to live your most heroic and courageous life and yet still lose your job and find yourself in financial peril. You can in the same moment that you achieved the pinnacle of success in your career come home to face the end of your marriage.

The prophet Elijah called down fire from heaven and proved to the prophets of Baal that the Lord was the one true God. After this defining moment in Elijah’s life, in which the presence and power of God was undeniable, Jezebel sent a message to Elijah promising his death and Elijah fled. He sat down under a bush and, instead of praying to see God’s power again, he prayed that God would take his life. Life carries great weight, and if you find the courage to take on great battles, you will feel an even greater weight that will sometimes seem more than you can bear.

Even Jesus did not want to face his darkest moment alone. When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before he was to die on the cross, he chose to take three of his closest friends with him. When you need to run, don’t run from God; run to him. Don’t run from the people you need in your life; run to them.

Hidden in your fears is the faith that you’re searching for. If you want to meet God, stand in your fears. Stand in your pain. Stand when everything inside you tells you to withdraw. I want you to know that God will give you the strength you need not simply to face the challenges that are right in front of you but to continue the journey that awaits. This is the profound nature of God – that when we are weak, he is strong. When we have lost our strength, he replenishes it. You are a warrior of peace. Do not fear the battle within.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

When you are in pain, do you run to God or from him? Do you run toward community or away from your friends and family? Do you wear your wounds with honor? Do you celebrate each victory in your life to prepare yourself for the bigger battle that is coming? When you need your strength replenished, do you pray to God that he would give you strength?

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The Way of the Warrior
The Way of the Warrior
Day 4 • 1 of 5
Devotional
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THE WARRIOR HARNESSES STRENGTH

The warrior knows their power. Even in defeat, the warrior is never powerless. Even when they are weak, the warrior knows their true strength. The warrior has learned how to harness their strength, focus their power, and replenish their energy. You must be mindful of what makes you feel most fully alive.

Nothing will steal our strength like living lives we do not love. The way we store energy is through our desires, values, passions, hopes, dreams, and aspirations, and ultimately our greatest capacity for energy storage is through what we love.

If getting up in the morning is a struggle and you find yourself lacking the energy to engage life fully, you can be certain that you are not living the life you were created to live. The warrior knows their energy flows out of their passions, that their passion must flow out of love, that it is love that gives them ultimate joy, and that it is joy in which they find their strength.

Negative emotions pose as fuel or passion. And although they do cause you do burn, they do not lead you to create but rather to destroy. There is a default mode we can surrender to where we simply just exist, paralyzed by apathy or despair or discouragement. Worry consumes your energy without productivity. It may seem as if fear is a fuel to the fire that burns within you, but in the end, all it does is diminish. Fear consumes our energy, while faith restores it.

You must find the why in the battle you are fighting. Choose the right people to fight next to. Remember that your tribe will shape your identity and your identity will shape your future.

Those fueled by greed and hatred will always prevail if their only opposition is those living in apathy and indifference. The future will be created by those with the courage to create it. A better world will happen only if we find the strength and energy to give our lives to it. The warrior knows they were created by God who is Spirit. All our energy comes from God. What we do with our energy is up to us.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

What is it that ignites your passions? What are the moments in which you feel most energized? Have you been letting negative emotions fuel you? What is the ‘why’ you are fighting for? Imagine the warrior you want to be – do you see that warrior in the people you surround yourself with?

THE WARRIOR OWNS DEFEAT

The warrior knows that honor is not found in the victory. Honor is found in the nobility of the battle. If the battle is not worthy of the warrior’s life, there is no honor in its victory. In the same way, the warrior knows there is no dishonor in defeat. Failure and defeat are not the same.

The warrior never claims victory for themselves but only for others. In the same way, the warrior never gives blame for defeat but owns it for themselves. The warrior owns defeat, therefore defeat never owns the warrior.

The warrior takes complete responsibility while never holding tightly to anything. Because the warrior lives with open hands, nothing can be taken from them. The warrior is free from all things and therefore is free to enjoy all things.

Ownership is not about possession; it is about responsibility. What you own matters far less than what you take ownership for. We are responsible for far more than what we have been given; we are responsible for what could have been done with all that we have been entrusted with.

At the beginning of humanity, God gave Adam and Eve ownership – not possession but responsibility – over all creation. Yet when Adam and Eve both ate from the one forbidden tree in the garden, neither took responsibility for their actions and instead blamed someone else.

You cannot change what you do not take responsibility for. When you blame someone else, you become dependent on that individual to solve your problem and change your circumstance. After all, if it is that person’s fault, then he or she is the only one who has the power to change your condition.

There is an unexpected relationship between blame and fear. When you blame others for your failure, you become powerless to change the world around you. You begin to live your life filled with fear, paralyzed by uncertainty and embittered by a sense of victimization. Fear may cause you to abdicate responsibility, but the abdication of responsibility will most certainly cause you to live in fear.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

Do you take responsibility for things in your life that you don’t own? How can you transition into a mindset of ownership? How have you abdicated the power to change a failure in your life by placing blame on others? How can you relinquish fear by reclaiming responsibility for your life?

THE WARRIOR SEEKS TO BECOME INVISIBLE

The warrior does not need to be seen. They are most powerful when they are invisible. The warrior knows that lesser opponents depend on swords and bows and arrows, but the weapon of the warrior is their wisdom. While there are many expressions of wisdom, for our purpose it will be defined as the ability to bring peace. The warrior wields a weapon only to defend, protect, and liberate. When the warrior is wise, they fight only for peace.

Where there is wisdom, there is always hope. Wisdom simplifies. Wisdom clarifies. Wisdom untangles. Wisdom unshackles. Wisdom illuminates.

This is the highest expression of wisdom – to live our lives for others rather than ourselves. The fool lives to consume all they can take from the world. The wise live to create a better world. Wisdom is revealed by what a person fights for. If you fight for yourself, you have given yourself to too small a thing. The warrior fights against injustice, against poverty, against despair, against depression.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon discovered that wisdom is better than strength. Wealth cannot secure your victory, and poverty cannot prevent it. Never let your lack of resources justify your lack of ambition. Never allow the measure of your wealth to be the measure of your life. Solomon was a man with both great wealth and great wisdom, but he could see clearly that only great wisdom ensures the best future.

The path toward wisdom is not taken by steps but by choices. We do not become fools because we lack the right information; we become fools because we love the wrong things. There is no more spiritual act than to choose. Before you swing your ax, choose your tree. Decide what your life is about; decide what is worth living for; find your intention. And no matter what may come, never relinquish your intention.

In the end, most of us will wonder if what we’ve given ourselves to has been worth the fight, especially if no one remembers our names. And that’s why we must never forget that what is done for ourselves will one day be forgotten, but that what we have done for others will be remembered for eternity.



GUIDING QUESTIONS

What are you fighting for in your life? Are you fighting just for your future, or the future of others? Are you letting a lack of resources serve as an excuse not to fight for your future? Are you giving your love away to foolish people or places? How can you recalibrate your intention for your life toward health, wisdom, and peace?

Week 92 Digging Deeper Live...
1. Healthy Living; The Endocannabinoid System
2. Truman's Matrix; You're Killing Us
3. The Ugly Truth of Forced Sterilization
4. Spiritual Warfare
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