Discontentment – Ammunition for the enemy (Part Two)

Why would an army need to be disciplined? Everywhere else in society we find mostly democracy and human rights, but in a good army men do as they were told and rebellion is not tolerated – not much democracy. They get regular pep talks and are well supported. If these soldiers don’t work together and there is division in the ranks, i.e. if everybody does as they like, that army is vulnerable.

Imagine an enemy manage to infiltrate an army and, through influencing the men, sow discontentment. They are told about everything that’s wrong and superiors are being discredited everywhere. How strong would such a grumbling army be?

We as Christians are at war. We have a real enemy that would stop at nothing to discredit God and His people and make us discontented. He has been successful with Israel back in the wilderness and also with the church through the ages. The ‘Egypt’ generation of Israel, through their discontentment, did not get what they wanted – the Promised Land. The Lord knew that they needed to be one with Him if they were to enter and conquer Canaan. Although the Lord has done great miracles for them, they still had the slave mentality from Egypt and not the soldier mentality they needed to enter and conquer Canaan.

We are told in 2 Timothy 2:3, 4: “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him (his commanding officer),” and in Philippians 2:25 and in Philemon 1:2 Paul refers to some of the church members as soldiers. We read in 1 Timothy 6:12: “Fight the good fight of the faith”, and in 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12),” and their weapons are diverse. Their primary purpose is to make God’s army ineffective through sowing discord, creating discontentment in the soldiers’ hearts, get the soldiers distracted by civilian affairs such as materialism and comfort and by bringing division between the Commanding Officer and the soldiers.

When Jesus was under heavy spiritual attack He told His disciples to “watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41)” We are told in several places in the Bible to be on our guard and Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:27: “But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

 When we are comfortable and not under spiritual attack, we should start to worry. “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12).” Persecution comes in many ways, amongst which are temptations to displease the Lord. Discontentment is just one of the powerful weapons used to make us ineffective, because if the devil can get us to be self-centred and unhappy with what the Lord tries to accomplish in our lives, we’ll not be effective soldiers.

Lord, help me to stay focused and be content with what You want to do in and through me.

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