Battles And Front Lines Devotional By Rita SpringerSample

Battles and Front Lines

In military terms, being on the front lines indicates that you are in the position closest to the area of conflict. For many, life can feel like a constant frontline experience. The Bible contains many supporting words about facing trials. In fact, no verse in the Bible exempts us, as believers, from them. The word battle creates imagery in our minds of a struggle for something or a fight against an opposing force. Ironically, we rarely hear the word battle and think automatically of the word victory.

In my frontline experiences, I began to realize that my focus was much more on the fight than on resting in the promised victory. The Word of God promises me that even when there are wars and rumors of wars, I am already able to declare victory merely by my faith in Christ. It is not, however, in our human nature to think peace first and fear second. We usually fear first and fight for peace later. God has set us up to do the opposite—we should never fear but instead always be at peace. Only when we have peace can we feel victorious.

When God spoke to me about recording again, I wanted to write songs that felt victorious, even though the conflict had not yet been resolved. I wanted to take that word battles and the feeling of being in a frontline conflict and infuse them with melodies of joy and the certainty of the win, regardless of an outcome. James says, “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors” (James 1:2 The Message) I truly believe this is what Scripture means when it asks us to consider joy when walking through trials. The pressures we face become the picture of the faith we carry. We count trials as joyful, not because the trials make us feel that way, but because our God has already given us power to defeat them.

This faith shows us off to God, telling Him that we believe He will be our follow-through! The outcome may look bleak in the natural, but the soul is shouting that it’s winning, even in the middle of the fight. How powerful is this truth!—to be willing, to be ready, to be able to say that as battles come, we have absolute certainty that the outcome will be glorious no matter what! The frontline of a battle isn’t my favorite place to be, but finding beautiful resolve and release knowing there is absolute victory is breathtaking!

Enjoy a playlist of Rita Springer’s songs from the new album “Battles” on The Overflow Christian music service, please visit http://oflow.it/00ne/xgRnRNmzzB