Forgiven Forget

Know your side. If you're a Christian, you're fighting for God now. One of the biggest tricks of your ex-commander, the devil, is to persuade you that you don't belong on Jesus' side. Guilt can bring you back to Jesus in tears for forgiveness... but it can also be used by the devil to convince you that you're beyond God's reach. Don't trust his words, or even your own words - trust God's words. Be strong in the Lord.

Keep up your strength. In a battle situation, it's crucial to keep taking on plenty of food, to keep energy up. It's just as crucial in the fight against sin, to stay alert. But the best food we can get is the sweet bread of God's words in the Bible. The Bible gives us a word picture of Jesus - so as we feed on and chew over the words in the Bible, and as, through those words, he makes himself more real to us, we are strengthening our faith in him. Regular, prayerful, thinking-through of the Bible will keep us sharp by showing us Jesus.

Stick together. The time I most realise I need other Christians is when I'm apart from them. On my own I get sluggish and short-sighted. I get sloppy with truth, and in my mind I begin to blunt the painfully sharp edges of sin. Temptation becomes less a danger, more a vague threat... then less a vague threat and more an annoying companion... then less an annoying companion and more a friend. Close Christian friends help me stay sharp by their own example, and by their conversation and encouragement. God has set up the church to be a close knit team - serving and helping each other; not competing.

God's army isn't made up of trained commandos. Perseverance is the keyword for the everyday weaklings, rejects and losers which Jesus has hand-picked to be his followers. As we fight a daily battle against sin, we'll learn to rely on God's armour, not our strength. We'll become stronger in him as we become weaker in ourselves. And we'll keep going because he'll show us more and more just how certain his ultimate victory is.