HAND TO HAND COMBAT

I recently attended the youth event in Gatlinburg, TN called Challenge Youth Conference (CYC). I was very impressed with this year's theme of "Hooked." I felt that the speakers really challenged the teens and others at this event to be very careful about satan trying to get them hooked on sin. But something that jumped out at me this weekend was a statement by one of the speakers that got me thinking. We as Christians are in God's army. And there are many weapons that we must carry along with us. These weapons are mention in Ephesians. But there is one type of fighting that we must also include in our arsenal; "hand to hand combat."

Now I know that this sounds funny. And some might not understand what I am trying to impress upon you. So let me help you visualize it more clearly. Take your right hand and then take your left hand, place them together and interlock your fingers. Now you have the "hand to hand" part. The combat is when we go to God in prayer in this position. Is there a better way to combat satan than to pray and ask for God's help? Trying times are all around us. We need His help.

In 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Paul writes that we can receive comfort from God. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" (emp. jer). Can you see just how much love is recorded in the above two verses with the word "comfort?" Five times this word is used. But it does not mean what we normally think that the word comfort means. According to an online dictionary, comfort means, "a state of ease and satisfaction of bodily wants, with freedom from pain and anxiety" (www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comfort). Now, if this is the Biblical meaning for comfort then we can say that God promises us freedom from all pain. That we will always be in a state of ease and not having to work. But God has not promised us that we will be without any pain or that we will have a life of ease and relaxation. So, the Biblical definition has to mean something else.

The word “comfort” in 2 Corinthians 1 comes from a greek word meaning, “to call near” (www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/paraklesis.html). The word has in its meaning the idea of strength as well. So to be comforted by God means not an absence of pain and suffering but the strength to endure anything that satan or life throws at us as we draw closer to God. This is the comfort that Christians will receive. This is an ability to find strength in times of physical and spiritual pain and tribulation. This is accomplished once we use our "hand to hand combat" and pray. A wonderful verse that helps us fully comprehend this is found in 1 Peter 5:7, "Casting your cares upon Him for He cares for you." We "pray" our cares away to God. So, continue to pray for this type of comfort for yourself and others around you. Make this your ministering message.