Dr. Anthony Raimondo

My article is not a request for money for Wounded Warriors but about a different type of Warrior with wounds. Christians often are wounded spiritually. They may not have physical injuries though some do; in most cases, there is a wounded spirit. Unfortunately, the churches have failed to strengthen the characteristics of the Soldier for Christ. They have done this by constantly imagining Jesus Christ as the Lamb, a docile animal. Jesus, however, was the Lion of Judah with courage and strength to do His Father’s will. He prayed that the cup of pain should be given to another, not as He willed but as God willed. The act of prayer was more for us that we will face times of trial and tribulation, and we are to grin and bear it, for it must always be God’s will and not ours. 

The enemy of God, however, will tempt us with three things, for he knows that one of them, if not all three, will have us choose our will and not God’s. These temptations are Riches and whatever makes life comfortable; Pleasure of every kind that makes it enjoyable; Honor to be famous, administration, all that makes consequential. Any one of these is a trap to lure us from God. Like, bait on a hook to capture a fish. When you don’t take the bait, the enemy comes to destroy you with pain and suffering so that you blame God and even reject the idea of God. What the enemy could not do with his three imagines of a beautiful life, he now does with its absences. You are now wounded, discouraged, Satan’s greatest weapon. He gets you to quit serving the Lord Christ and God. However, it is at this point if you stand fast and thank God for the trial and accept your destiny as Jesus Christ did in the Garden that the Holy Spirit will descend on you and give you the strength you need to overcome the enemy. 

A true Christian is to follow his King Jesus Christ into the same battlefield as his Lord commends. Jesus commands us this; “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels.” (Luke 9:23-26 NIV) We are only true Christian when we are prepared to die for Christ.