A young soldier is fighting in the War of the Roses. It's the battle of Bosworth and he is fighting on the side of Henry VII. Moments before the fighting engages, the young soldier receives a tip off telling him what the outcome of the fight is going to be. He doesn't understand how the messenger knows the end result, but he chooses to trust in him, and so goes into battle feeling confident; sure that he is on the winning side. The battle starts, and things are looking good for Henry's side; Richard III's army are steadily decreasing in number, and Henry is gaining precious ground. The young soldier is amazed, the messenger was right! Spurred on by the thought of victory, he becomes passionate in his fighting, and shouts battle cries that revere his king. But then the tables turn; Henry is starting to lose ground, Richard's army have found reinforcements and the young soldier looks to now be fighting on the losing side. He begins to doubt the messenger, after all, how could he possibly know the outcome of this situation before it's even happened? Maybe the messenger delivered the wrong message? What if he had only told the young soldier that he was on the victorious side in some cruel gesture to get the soldier's hopes up? The young soldier fights on for Henry for a little while longer, trying to cling on to the faith he had in the messenger before things went downhill, trying to squash the doubts that are springing up in his mind. But prospects still look bleak for Henry, and so the young soldier decides to forget what the messenger said, decides that he was wrong, and so loses sight of the future, looking purely at the situation playing out immediately in front of him. Clearly Richard is going to win. The young soldier abandons Henry's side, and begins to fight with Richard, sure that he is now on the side that will win. Things look up for a while; Henry is still losing ground and Richard's army are becoming more and more fired up. The young soldier is certain he made the right choice in switching sides, the messenger didn't know what he was talking about. Out of nowhere, a loud cry is heard; Richard has fallen off his horse! He is alive, and still fighting, but he has lost a valuable foothold. This spurs Henry's army back to life. They now see victory as a potential again. The young soldier continues fighting fervently, sure that he was right in choosing which side he should fight on, rather than listening to the messenger. But news soon spreads; Richard has been defeated, Henry has won the victory. The young soldier slumps onto his knees, exhausted. He should have listened to the messenger, should have trusted in his words and believed him even when things looked bleak. But he didn't. And now his life is in the hands of an unrelenting and unstoppable army. He is terrified, alone, lost. 'I should have put my faith in the messenger.'
What does this story of the young soldier have to do with us as Christians? A lot more than you may first think. There is no doubt that our day to day life is played out on a battlefield; good vs evil, up vs down, God vs Satan. Being a Christian puts a spiritual target on our backs. Making a stand for God and for His ways means being prepared to combat all of the things that the enemy will throw at us in an attempt to make us sit back down. These things aren't as obvious as the arrows and swords the young soldier would have been trying to dodge, they're far more hidden. They're disguised as disappointments, struggles, arguments, hurt, lies, and most of all fear. Satan wants us to shrink back and not take on the territory that he has frightened people out of. Yes, being missional can be dangerous, particularly in parts of the world where christianity is illegal, but whether we fear that danger or not is our choice.
God has promised to be our protection. Isaiah 33v21 says, 'The Lord will be our Mighty One. He will be like a wide river of protection that no enemy can cross, that no enemy ship can sail upon.' The only reason we need fear the enemy's attacks are if we don't believe God's promise of protection to be true. The young soldier didn't believe the messenger's promise of victory, and so ended the battle crouched in fear. We have no reason to do that. My brother once did a study on all of God's promises in the Bible, looking first at all of the promises that God made, and then at all of the ways in which God fulfilled those promises. Each time he found a completed promise he stuck a post-it note to his wall. Towards the end of the study there was barely any room left on the wall! God is constantly making promises and fulfilling them. And not just fulfilling them once, but fulfilling them over and over again. If God promised to protect us, He will protect us. As well as promising to protect us in our battles, God has also provided us with armour in which to fight them. Ephesians 6 talks about the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. We are not only covered internally, by God's promises over us, but also externally, by His armour. Completely covered and secured by God makes us impenetrable to fatal wounds from the enemy.
And what about those times when the battle isn't about being missional and fighting for what we believe, but about trusting God and fighting to continue believing what we do? The young soldier's prospects looked great to start with, things were going well and he was enjoying being on the winning side, but then things started to get harder, the other side started fighting back more fervently. He started doubting the messenger just as the enemy loves to make us doubt God, and make us question whether what we believe is the truth or not. He loves to makes us feel as though following God is too much hard work, too tiring, and the wrong choice. Again, these are lies instigated by the enemy in an attempt to make us sit down, or switch sides. Isaiah 50v7 says, 'I have set my face like a stone, determined to do His will. And I know that I will not be put to shame.' Choose to set your face like stone. Be full of determination. Trust that where you are right now, the struggle you're going through, is definitely not where things will end. Out of our greatest battles come our greatest triumphs. The soldier believed that the struggle Henry's side started to face was going to be the end, he didn't trust that they would come back from where they were, and because of that his battle held no triumph for him.
Although following Him means having to fight to follow Him, I cannot begin to describe the worth of trusting in and sticking with Him through all of the battles. We know the end result (heaven), we know who the victory goes to (Jesus). Don't be like the soldier in the story and give up fighting when things temporarily look as though they are going downhill. Don't be like him and lose the trust and faith that you had when God promised that His side is the winning side. God will reward us for our efforts, for believing in Him through thick and thin. As it says in Proverbs 3, 'Let love and faithfulness never leave you; tie them around your neck as a reminder, write them deep within your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God.' God has promised us victory, promised us eternal life. Let's keep on trusting that His words are true. We don't want to be like the young soldier and end our battle thinking, 'I should have put my faith in the messenger', instead we want to end our battles thinking to ourselves, 'I'm so glad I kept my faith in the messenger.'