"Ready for Battle?" - a poem

I've been thinking about spiritual warfare (after writing the last post) and how we human beings don't always quite "get it". We try to do too many things by ourselves, on our own, for one reason or another (like maybe to show God and others -and ourselves- how well we're doing or how "spiritual" we are!)  Doing that is dangerous, especially when it comes to battle.  If we don't have the proper equipment, and learn to use it well, we enter the battle with a huge disadvantage that may lead to a heavy loss.

In this poem, God is speaking...

                                              READY FOR BATTLE?

                            Ready for battle?  You want to take part,
                            so you muster your skills and your tools and your art.
                           Your kit piles up as you saw, paste and hone,
                            pleased that you're gathering it all on your own.

             But how much protection will they really afford,
             your tinfoil helmet and rough wooden sword,
             your unshod feet and your poster-board shield?
             Is that how you go to the battlefield?

    I offer you all you must use for defense,
    guaranteed to hold up when the war's most intense.
    Don't rely on your own hand-made weapons, your "might".
    It's only MY armor that lasts through the fight:

                           my righteousness, truth, and my Gospel well-heard,
                           salvation and faith and the Sword of my Word.
                           Ready for battle?  All you need's been supplied,
                           so gear up, brave soldier! We'll fight side-by-side.
                                                                                                                       -Becky Rhon
                                                                                                             (see Eph.6:10-18)
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 Many writings ago, I mentioned that there was more than one factor involved in my collapse. It wasn't the "burnout" alone.  Another factor was  that I was found to have a hormonal imbalance.  Yet another was what we all suspected was our Foe trying to get at us by breaking our health.  Why did we arrive at that conclusion?  Because there were several of us women in the community who all started to suffer from  kind-of-hard-to-pin-down symptoms, with only tentative - even vague- diagnoses, at best.  When one after another of us ended up "sickly", it didn't seem a coincidence.

As far as I know, none of us ever regained complete health.  BUT...that didn't mean that our Enemy got the best of it!  I know that in my case, I have learned such valuable lessons and gained so much that I am stronger inside than before.  Outside doesn't matter as much.

(My health has actually gotten worse over the years, even after leaving Shell.   In case you're wondering, I have fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, a couple of heart arrhythmias, with a dis-functional sacroiliac thrown in, along with a couple of other bothersome things. Pain is my daily companion. It's usually not too bad, and doesn't interfere too much with what I do. I take medicines, but every so often the pain is so bad it makes me weep.  But I am so thankful that I can still do housework, play the piano, write, cook - one of my hobbies -... and all my senses work!  So many people can't walk, or talk, or see, or hear...)

If YOU, who are reading this, are going through tough times, especially with discomforts and pain, don't let our spiritual Enemy get you down!...or if he manages that, don't let him keep you from reaching out for Jesus' hand to pull you right back up again!

God loves you so very much!