The battle is never fought alone even though we might feel alone in the fight, for with God the feeling of being alone never supersedes the fact of His presence.

Maybe I can’t fight this battle because I was never supposed to in the first place. And maybe that’s because God wanted me to ‘sit this one out’ so that He could step up and ‘take this one out.

The battle didn’t just happen to happen. Rather, God invited us to the battle so that we could be left utterly breathless at the miraculous way that He won it. And once we witness that kind of victory, our need to fight anything is replaced by His ability to win everything.

We have heard it said that we need to ‘stand up and fight’. I would suggest that the most powerful way to do that is to ‘kneel down and pray’. The former might win the battle, but the latter will win the war.

A father teaches his children that the battle is not determined by the enemy that stands around them, but by the God Who stands within them. And that lesson can only be driven home as they watch their father stand around them, while God stands within their father.

Yet, there are those moments when what we stand to lose is greater than the pain that threatens to take it.

To deny the battle is unwise. To believe that I can fight it without God is insane. To actually do so is suicidal. No wonder so many of us walk around looking like death warmed over.

The restless adventurer within me stands eye-to-eye with the fear that has stepped directly in my path. And the thing I absolutely must not do is to blink first.

If there’s any redeeming quality that I can find in running away from something, it’s that I’m on my feet. Now all I’ve got to do is alter my direction.