Published on 07/31/2006

This summer we have been engaged in a battle for the peace and purpose of God in our lives. We are learning to fight against the worries and fears which our enemy and fallen world bring against our souls. We are choosing to trust in Jesus' word and will, to live on Monday without fearing Tuesday, to give our problems and burdens to him in prayer and trust. But it's hard to practice his presence without his power. In fact, it's impossible.

Commentary

In 1940, with German bombs raining down on London, Winston Churchill and his Cabinet and staff practically lived in their Cabinet War Rooms. This fortified basement provided the prime minister a bedroom, and his cabinet a room for meeting and a map room for strategy planning. I've toured these rooms, and found them fascinating. The White House Situation Room provides the same security to our president and his staff today. In such "war rooms," wars are won or lost.

What you and I need is a War Room. How do we make one and use it well? A spiritual war room is a place and practice. It is a conviction and commitment. It is the discipline of meeting alone with God, each morning and through each day. It is the indispensable key to the power and joy of Jesus. The first and hardest step to constructing such a war room is to want one.

Someone once said of their church: "They have all of Jesus they want. Not all they need, but all they want." We live in a ruggedly self-sufficient, independent culture. Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. Look out for number one. Pull your own strings.

"God helps those who help themselves" is our credo. More than 70 percent of all Americans are sure it's in the Bible. Actually this statement first appeared in print in the book of an Englishman named Algernon Sidney in 1698; Benjamin Franklin made it famous.

But it doesn't work. In all of recorded human history there have been only four years without war somewhere on our planet. The war against terrorism continues in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Middle East. Each day brings news of potential threats against our nation. It's the same with our souls.

Satan is a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). He is seeking a way to attack you and those you love, this morning. But if we want God's protection and power, we shall find them. How? Let's continue tomorrow.