I have been doing a lot of fitness training at the moment. Another guy on the ship and I have been doing a training program called “Insanity” and it certainly lives up to its name! (If you don’t believe me just type it into you tube!) You train 6 days a week with one rest day, due to the heat we have to get up at 5am every morning to train before it gets to hot.
All this training got me thinking about a program the Army ran a few years back called “Fit for Life”. I think they have run it since, but I have not been home for it. It was a long time ago, but I think the general idea of it was to train people up and equip them with recourses to live a good Christian life.
In the Navy we have a physical training branch; they have a motto “Fit for Life = Fit to Fight”. Obviously in the Forces it has the meaning that if we are generally fit in life we will already be fit when called upon to fight. However I feel this motto could also be adopted by the Salvation Army. Im not suggesting for a second that every member of the SA starts doing Insanity with me; although I might see if any of the Home League ladies at my corps fancy having a try!
What I do mean though, is that surely as Salvationists we need to be constantly fit for Spiritual Warfare; we should always be ready and fit to fight. Just as our Army forefathers were; they really did like a good spiritual battle!
Yes, this also comes from being fit for life, but I believe being fit for the fight is a totally different level of spiritual fitness. Just in the same way that many civilians would consider themselves fit, but strap a 50lb backpack on them, get them to run across the mountains of Wales and they would soon realise to be fit to fight you require a totally different level of fitness.
So how do we know that we are or that we should be involved in Spiritual Warfare? Well firstly we only need to look at all the pain and suffering in the world to see the enemy has command of many troops! There is so much evil in the world and so many being led in the wrong direction. Secondly the Bible tells us that we are called to Fight the Good fight;
1 Timothy 6:12-16 (New International Version)
12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honour and might forever. Amen.
But how do we fight this good fight? I think there are many ways, which depend upon your circumstances and where you are. For example the fight against evil and sin here on the ship is totally different to the fight when I am at home. Many people are called by God into different areas of the fight; just as on a warship there are many different trades and jobs. Each one may seem small or insignificant on its own. However when the ship closes up to action stations it cannot operate or fight efficiently unless everyone is doing their small part.
But to be fit to fight we do need to train; and to be effective we need to train hard. Even if it means getting up at stupid o’clock! We need to get our heads deep into the Bible at least every day. We need to pray; pray lots and pray hard! We also need to come together as Christians, because being on a battle field on your own is tough and scary; but in a group the support you get makes things seem better and makes you more effective.
There are plenty of resources out there to help you train; the net is full of good Salvation Army sites. It’s worth checking them out and beginning your training; because the thing with training is it takes time and effort. However the sooner you get into training and the harder you train the sooner you will be fit to fight!
The Sailing Salvationist
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