A Time of War

By T.M. Moore - Posted at The Fellowship of Ailbe:

You're in a war. Are you engaged?

And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped...
- Joshua 5.13, 14

So here we must fight and struggle with our vices, that we may be crowned elsewhere. For this is a time of war; no one should expect rest in warfare, for the reason that in warfare none sleeps, and none joins his rank at rest.
- Columbanus, Sermon X, Irish, 7th century[1]

In this life we are engaged in a great struggle, as Columbanus noted, a spiritual warfare, in which our enemy seeks to rob us of the righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit which are ours in the Kingdom of God.

We are engaged in this warfare continuously.

Well, we should be, at any rate.

I wonder sometimes whether we struggle against our vices as earnestly as we should. It’s just so much easier to stay mad, or to indulge some spiteful thought, to fix our hopes on material possessions, or just go around brooding, moping, and anxious.

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