The victory's already been won...but there are still battles to fight.

A little over a year ago, I wrote about the fellow pictured here over on Tony C Today (click here).  It was a tongue in-cheek piece about Church Guy, a fictitious alter ego I'm accused of playing from time to time by my better half.

She didn't find it so funny, apparently...

While the post was in fun, there were some fundamental truths about me sprinkled throughout. First, my wife is extremely vital to me and compliments (and tolerates) my demeanor very well. Second, I am a pretty laid back guy who has mellowed with age. Third, I don't hold a grudge. Well, at least not for very long.

But the most telling truth about me from the post can also be seen, some times subtly and some times not, in my post here on Kingdom Bloggers. I honestly try to live my life by the greatest commandments according to Jesus (Mark 12:30-31).

Does my focus on loving God and loving others make me weak and vulnerable to attacks by Satan? I personally don't think so and use Jesus as the ultimate template for how I conduct my philosophy. Joyce mentioned the full armor of God in her post Tuesday. I've always found it interesting that the spiritual battle gear doesn't have anything protecting the wearer's back. There could be a number of reasons for this fact, but as a former Marine, I like to think there's nothing protecting our backs because God wants Christians always on the attack!

So while I can focus on my love for God and my love for my fellow man, I can still be a mean, nasty soldier for God when it comes to Satan. God has helped me find perspective and balance in my life for this too. Make no mistake...without God I would be defenseless and devoured by evil in the blink of an eye! But keeping God close in my life and always in focus gives me the strength I need to wage daily spiritual warfare.

Does that mean Satan never wears me down or wins a battle from time to time? Absolutely not. But those times I can directly correlate to times I'm not focused on what I should be. While it all seems fundamentally simple, Satan is a most worthy adversary and will win his share of battles. My job is to keep my eye on the eternal prize God has promised, and to reach out to as many souls as I possible can with His love.

Not very often have military commanders gone into a battle knowing the ultimate outcome ahead of time, and in all the cases I'm aware of where they did...God had shared His plan with them well  in advance..