Tag Archive for: battles

Armed with Righteousness

“Can we get a light sabre photo?” asked Elizabeth Anderson.
Following a crunching tackle whilst playing football on P-day, she ended up with a badly sprained ankle, some support bandaging, and a pair of crutches.
Elizabeth has quite an imagination, so, arming ourselves for our light sabre battle was fun.
There are, however, many battles in our life’s that are not quite so fun.
Daily we see real life battles played out in war torn cities in Ukraine.
Other personal battles can take the form of; financial difficulties, relationship issues, career pressures, inner battles with doubts, mental health anxieties, testimony concerns, abuse, insecurities, trauma, fear, bullying, parenthood issues, and many more.
What battles are you facing now?
How do you overcome your personal battles?
“The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself, the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us, that’s where it’s at.” Jesse Owens.
Winning those battles oftentimes takes extra effort.

Extra Effort

For me, the extra effort comes through self-reflection, slowing down daily, connecting with the divine part of myself, renewing my spiritual strength through prayer, scripture study and treasuring up the words of God.
Spiritual strength comes through faith, obedience, and repentance.
Neil L. Andersen said. “As you arm yourself for battle, your protection comes from God, who is our Father. You have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you take His name upon [you].”
He goes on to say, “While the battle rages, we need not fear. The Lord will help you, your family, and others you love who need special help. We know the outcome. The Saviour will triumph over all!”
I know personally that it is through our conversion to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and by following Him, that brings happiness, peace, real joy, and a bright hope for the future.
In Isaiah 41:10 we read, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”
Recently, I spoke about being “armed with righteousness” – 1 Nephi 14:14.
To survive the battles of our day, arming ourselves with light sabres would be nice if they were real, but the reality of our battles requires us to consider one of our greatest allies of all – even Jesus Christ.
He will help us to overcome all our battles and ultimately provide the greatest victory of all by defeating the sting of death, through His glorious resurrection.

What personal battles do you face?

What do you wrestle with?
What is your biggest personal battle?
As unique individuals, we fight incredibly personal battles – daily.
In the Book of Mormon we read in Mosiah 3:19 “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”
Bending the will of our “𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒂𝒏” tendencies to the “𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒚 𝑺𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒕” is not easy.
In fact it is downright difficult.
Yet it is also simple.
It is something that requires daily, consistent, disciplined effort.
Prophets of yesteryear throughout the Bible and The Book of Mormon, and now in our time, modern day Prophets, constantly address their voice and their lives to these key matters:
– Spirit over flesh
– Discipline over permissiveness
– Reverence over scorn
As you wrestle, there are beautiful joyful moments to be found in daily prayer, repentance, seeking forgiveness, all to be found through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
A perfect day will come.
The doctrine of Christ teaches us that we can overcome these mortal trials as we yield our will as children, to the will of our Heavenly Father.
It is a simple invitation. The Saviour said “𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒆, 𝑭𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝑴𝒆.”