"The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war"

The ancient Chinese proverb  "The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war" is often stated in military circles, and it was famously quoted by US General Patton.

            The saying seemed fitting during a fire exercise we held on the ship this week. As I ran about in a full fire-fighting suit, on compressed air, with heavy air bottles strapped to my back. Sucking air through my face mask and with sweat pouring from me in the 35ºc + heat, the quote certainly went through my mind more than once!

            Some would say it is madness to carry out such exercises in such high heat. It certainly puts a lot of stress and pressure on your body. But to be able to carry out such tasks when a real emergency happens, you need to be trained and test that your body can be pushed to its limits. Because at the end of the day if there is a fire on the ship you can’t just get off and call the fire brigade!

            Afterwards as I sat on the side of the ship with the breeze cooling me and an ice cold can of coke I started thinking. As Salvationists we are all engaged in a war, and surely to be effective in this war we need to train, but not just to train, to train hard. But how often do we train for this spiritual war with such passion and effort that it becomes physically uncomfortable? I would have to say I can’t really admit that I do! Although I plan to start!

            How often do we put reading our Bible off because we are too busy, yet busy doing what? Half the time it could just be sitting in front of the TV. Where is the passion and effort in that? How often can we honestly say we put it as a priority in our lives?

             
            What about prayer, how often do we pray so hard and with such effort that we physically start to sweat? We know Jesus did and we are called to follow his example, as we can see in Luke 22:44, where we see Jesus praying just before he is betrayed by Judas and handed over to the Jews and the Romans.

Luke 22:44 (New International Version)
⁴⁴ And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

            How often do we pray half heartedly and then get annoyed or upset with God because he does not answer our prayers?
           
             It makes me think, if we put more effort into our prayer lives, what changes could we see? If we are prepared to put so much effort into prayer that we physically start sweating how much of a change will we see in this spiritual war?
           
             Imagine the whole Salvation Army having such a passion and calling for prayer, putting so much energy and passion into it that it caused a physical reaction like sweating in our bodies. Imagine the changes that could be brought about in the world when so much effort was applied in our spiritual training by the entire Salvation Army.

            Our world seems to be constantly bleeding, there always seems to be pain, brokenness and evil. Perhaps it’s time that as Christians we start sweating in our training; putting maximum effort into training ourselves and our Corps through prayer and Bible study. If we do, just imagine the changes we could see in our communities, The Salvation Army and even the world!