You will stand alone before the Lord.

You will account for your actions and your words. Your works will be tested by fire. They will burn or they will stand. You will not have any reasons or excuses.

Nothing will be found to be the fault of any other person. You will stand alone before Him.

So, stand before Him now. Make your decisions according to the Word of God. You may not acquiesce to a lesser standard. You may not compromise integrity to please someone else.

You may not choose a less resistant path, just because it is asked of you or because you are passive. You may not bend in an ungodly direction to please the sinful.

No one has ever been won to Christ by the drawing down of the Christian flag.

Soldier of The Cross, keep your eye on the Goal. Make sure your day is about His Word, His Life, His Own and His agenda.

Do more than you feel you can do. Do more than you think you can do. Step out and love one who you think you could never love.

Invest in eternity.

The character of God is profoundly attractive to the Soldier of The Cross.

While our God is mighty, sovereign, omniscient, omnipresent, holy and much else, He is also loving, tender, and merciful.

The Lord is not a buddy or a chum. But He is responsive to you beyond any human concept.

He listens.

If you let Him in, He will come in to the very center of your heart and He will sit down and fellowship with you. He has said so.

Soldier, learn to enjoy God. In order to do so, it is necessary to bring His availability to the foreground of prayer.

After all, He died for you before you cared. He went after you. He revealed Himself and then He wooed you.

He is not a Gauntlet. He is the Lover of Your Soul.

Make sure you are investing in eternity.

Where have your thoughts been today? Problem solving? Worry? Regrets?

Soldier of The Cross, be a forward-looking Christian. There is no benefit from worry. There is no benefit from fear. There is no benefit from guilt.

What does God's Word say? Where should your treasure be? Where, in fact, is it?

Are there influences in your life that would distract you from The Goal?

You must talk to Him about it. Ask for a vision of eternity.

No Believer has ever been spared this attack. God's Word sheds light on all issues of life, including eternal treasure.

This must be a deliberate decision. It must be based on The Word of God. You must tell Him that you trust Him far more than you trust your own ability to interpret circumstances.

Life is less than fleeting.

Eternity is without measure.

Be willing to stand alone on the Word of God.

You must not believe something because someone else believes it. You must not believe something because of an emotional appeal. You must not believe something because it fills a void.

You must believe only because you have experienced. You know you have been touched by His Hand.

Soldier of The Cross, belief is of no value. There are children who are encouraged to believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. Neither one exists.

Members of cults believe what they are told to believe. They are seduced into belief.

We who are His know that He lives, because we have been born into the Kingdom of His Dear Son. The Kingdom of Light. Belief has nothing to do with anything.

Soldier, do not persuade the mind. Introduce the lost to Jesus.

There is genuine suffering in the world.

Many are persecuted, starving or ill. Without question, the death of a loved one brings a deep grief that is painfully lonely.

For many Christians, suffering is self-induced. Elisabeth Elliot says suffering is simply having something you do not want, or wanting something you do not have.

We have a protection against a great deal of the suffering the enemy would like to inflict. The Holy Spirit has instructed us to govern our thoughts. To lead them away, captive.

When the mind begins weaving around what could have been, fantasy begins to seep in. Solid ground becomes quicksand. The stance slackens and the pace slows. Slowly, the painful process of self-examination eats away at the soul. The leading of the Lord is obscured by wishing and longing for things that can not be relived.

The days and hours are lost. Depression and weariness and wishing become haunting and there is no release without repentance and, often, corporate prayer.

Anger, resentment and jealousy do the same thing. They produce a life of fantasy. The imaginings bring feeling and the soulish believer lives as though the fantasy were real. And speech and action begin to take on the color of the paranoid thoughts that have been festering.

Again, the result is usually depression and an intense need to persuade others of the truth of the thing that is in actuality, only a paranoid fantasy.

Much suffering that is not physical, is the result of an ungodly thought life.

What has happened to you? When the initial sting has passed, there is always choice. Even in grief, the pain is sweeter when there is an agreement with God about the matter.

Soldier of The Cross, you are not expected to wear a smarmy grin and deny pain or hardship.

You are expected to let Him have His way. You are expected to allow Him to do whatever He needs to in order to bring about His own likeness in you.

You are expected to identify with His sufferings.

Take courage. Remember that He loves you enough to allow the things that have been in your life and that are there now.

No wound-licking. No whining in the mind. No fantasy conversations. No plans to even the score.

Look up and move on!

Soldier of The Cross, you must be aware of your thoughts.

The battle is in the mind, and we are instructed to regulate thoughts. We are even told what to think about - Philippians 4:8.

If there is no prayer, there is no power to be alert to the thought life. There is no recognition of the gap between where the thoughts are and where they should be.

We are to take each thought captive and lead it away. If there is no prayer, there is no vision as to how to expel thoughts that do not line up with the whole of God's Word.

Without God's Word, there is no skill in prayer. We know the Holy Spirit , but He leads according to The Word. Little skill in the word results in little power in prayer.

While the enemy can attack physically, he far prefers to flood the believer's mind with things that cause irritation, worry, fear and guilt.

God's Word is more real than the way that you feel. Line up your thoughts with His.

The one who spends private time in prayer aloud, has a bearing that reflects heaven.

It is not possible to recognize the Lord or have a radiant relationship with the Him if any of the components are missing.

It is easier to study than it is to pray. It is easier to serve than it is to pray. It is easier to go to meetings than it is to pray.

In fact, it is almost easier to give the body to be burned than it is to pray.

So, pray. Pray aloud. Tell Him what you love about Him. What you love about His people and His Word.

Sing to Him.

Interceded for others. Ask Him to do the deepest work in your heart.

Don't tell Him how to do it.

Know that He is listening and responding.

Then, studies bring a new dimension. Service becomes an expression of Rivers of Living Water. Meetings become a bathing of His feet in perfume.

Sacrifice is dwarfed, and the victim mentality is flushed away.

Pray. Pray

The Lord has no limits.

There is no lack, no defense, no weapon, no threat, no lie, that can thwart the Lord. The Rock of Ages can not be moved by human force. He is only moved by prayer.

Soldier of The Cross, we look forward to eternity. We obey the One whose Touch we have experienced and whose voice woos us.

There are many who know the content of the Bible. There are fewer who know the Author. There are even fewer who know how to pray - how to agree with God, and how to ask according to His will instead of praying according to circumstances.

Praying for drought? Praying for rain?

Present the situation to the God for whom nothing is impossible.

Does something seem awry?

Have you been thrown a curve? It might be an answer to prayer.

It is true. Faith is a rarity today. The flesh does all it can to survive. It resists faith with all it is and has.

Because He has said He would listen and take care of it, He will. Remember, He does not need the pieces to produce the whole.

Soldier of The Cross, we live in a different dimension. The faith dimension.

Nothing else works.

When we are told to "never lag in zeal," we must not look for a feeling of spiritual energy.

Zeal is a feature of the presence and freedom of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Believer. This Christian zeal is the result of decisions made - decisions resulting in obedience to Him.

The zealous Soldier of The Cross is the one who does not allow periods of passivity. He simply decides what his priorities will be and he lives accordingly.

The zealous are not a saber-waving kamikaze warriors, charging on a fast horses. They are plodding Soldiers, who have looked up and have seen His Graciousness. His Love. His Mercy. His Majesty.

They have decided they will love, serve and obey. They are eager for divine correction. They remain steady because they can see eternity. Even when the body gets weak, purpose does not become diluted with physical limitations.

To the end, which is only the beginning!