In the midst of battles, trials and difficulties, it is easy to develop a ‘siege mentality’. In mediaeval times, siege warfare was a typical military operation, whereby the enemy would surround or blockade a town, a castle or a fortress in an attempt to capture it. The people being besieged would be unable to get out to get provisions or help; meanwhile, the enemy would be pelting them and attacking them using a trebuchet, an awesome catapult, which attackers would use to bombard towns with fireballs and rotting flesh to wear down those being attacked.
A replica trebuchet at Warwick Castle
It can be hard to keep perspective and hope when you are starving and under attack, when each day brings no relief, when you feel beleaguered and oppressed. And that’s how many of us feel as Christians. We feel daunted, overcome, often defeated… but that is because our eyes are on the battle, rather than on God. As Casting Crowns sing,
‘If your eyes are on the storm
You’ll wonder if I love you still,
But if your eyes are on the cross
You’ll know I always have and I always will.’ (‘Just Be Held’, Casting Crowns)
We need to remember that ‘God specialises in things thought impossible.‘ Nothing is impossible with God. The God who made the heavens and the earth by His great power and outstretched arm finds nothing too difficult. (Jer 32:17) The God who could breathe life into the valley of dry bones and raise up an army from that can breathe life into our dry bones and use us in ways we can’t even imagine. (Ezek 47) The God who came upon Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit and enabled a virgin to conceive is able to breathe life into our deadness and bring hope to the hopeless. The angel said to Mary, ‘For no word from God will ever fail’ (Luke 1:37). ‘No matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.’ (2 Cor 1:20)
Our role is to fix our eyes on the God of the impossible: ‘‘Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.’ (Col 3:1-2, The Message) As we do this, God gives faith, hope and peace to us and enables us to abound in grace: ‘And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.’ (2 Cor 9:8)