The Comfort of God in the Midst of Battle

“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.”
– 1 Peter 4:1-2, ESV

I’ve been reading Melissa Kruger’s newest book, Growing Together: Taking Mentoring Beyond Small Talk and Prayer Requests, and in her chapter on temptation, she begins with an anecdote of the time she watched the movie Saving Private Ryan. She describes the opening scene that portrays the D-Day landing at the beaches of Normandy during World War II, and then she writes, “In the midst of such a battle, imagine the surprise we’d all feel if one of the young men stopped on the beach, set out a towel, took off his shirt, and began to put on sunscreen. When a fellow soldier would pause to ask, ‘What on earth are you doing?’ he would reply, ‘Well, I’m at the beach. I’m going to spend some time enjoying the sun and waves.'” Kruger comments on how astonishing we would all find this soldier’s behavior. He’s in the middle of a battle, and if he sits there and ignores it, he’s going to die! We might think this hypothetical scene is impossible, but Kruger claims we often do this very thing when it comes to spiritual warfare. “We forget that in the midst of the physical world around us,” she writes, “there’s a spiritual battle raging. We think the Christian life is like a nice day at the beach, but it’s described as a race (Heb. 12:1-3), childbirth (Rom. 8:22-23), and a battle (Eph. 6:11-23). None of those are easy, and all of them involve pain” (108).

The more I study God’s word and pray for help in my struggles with sin, the more I realize how deeply rooted sin is in my heart. There are days where I’m just tired of battling unrighteous thoughts, impulses, and desires. I want a break. I want a day at the beach. God in His goodness never gives us more than we can handle, though, because He is the power at work in us. And in His great mercy, He gives us many moments of respite from the battle. But sometimes I think we can long so much for the comfort of God, that we forget it’s meant to come because of the war and not apart from the war. We want a type of comfort and ease in this life that’s free from struggle, but the reality is that we don’t get that type of life until we die or until Christ’s second coming and the old heaven and earth pass away and all is made new again. We should seek the peace and rest and comfort of God while we walk faithfully on this earth, but these things come as a result of waging war against Satan, the flesh, and the world and seeing the power of God as sufficient to defeat these forces. Our hope and comfort comes from knowing the war is already won even if the battles are still being waged. While we are alive on this earth on this side of eternity, we live in the tension of the “already, but not yet” (1 John 3:2).

Let us not be caught off guard. Let us remember that while the work of Christ is finished and we are justified, the work of our sanctification and of the great commission are not yet over. And Satan will do everything in his power to subvert these works (1 Peter 5:8). But praise God that His power is greater and that He has already destroyed the one who has the power of death (Heb. 2:14)! Let us find comfort in the day when all of His promises will be fully consummated and say with the apostle John, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).