Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually! 1 Chronicles 16:11 

I was reflecting on a trip my wife Cynthia and I took several years ago to Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.  It had been described in a traveler’s guide as a living history museum where costumed interpreters helped visitors to experience life in a New England town of the 1830’s.  We stepped into the hard and challenging life of the past by visiting houses, a bank, barns, a church, and furnishings of the period and by watching folks do things the old-fashioned way.  We took a river boat ride, watched the gardens being tended, waved to people driving by in a stage coach, experienced the livestock, and took in demonstrations such as open-hearth cooking, cider distilling, and fabricating tin lanterns.

In today’s message of hope and inherent desire for a practical application, we’d like to focus in a special way on one of the favorite games played back then that is pictured herein.  On a purely physical level, there was excitement as both tug of war teams gave it their all by grunting, growling, and snorting….all to pull the other team across a line to defeat.

If we choose to live a Christian life-style, we must know we face a spiritual tug of war too.  For an immediate example, we wake up daily to an aftermath of a Covid-19 atmosphere with it’s full-scale confusion, fear, discouragement, and social isolation.   When we add the muscle of the onslaught of angry political and racial unrest, we sense a powerfully hateful pulling, complete with a vicious and demonic vengeance.  If we remain unprepared or casual, there is no doubt today’s life’s challenges, saturated with poor thinking, negative social influences, and direct devilish tampering will drag us to lose precious ground in our position and condition as a follower of Christ.

How can we pattern ourselves to remain strong and keep pulling the way God promises to assist us?  It’s in His authority and balanced power that we must rely to help us overcome the forcefully negative tugging from the world’s trials, tensions, and temptations. Though not an exhaustive or perfect list, the following is a good start in our training for pulling to win in this ongoing battle.

• Avoid spiritual drifting – Minimize the news media intake. Maximize praying as a primary practice and stay in contact with God; our Father and Creator.
• Resist being hungry – Stay fed physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
• Refuse to stay angry – Erase anger with forgiveness and healthy physical exercise.
• Say no to social isolation – Establish wholesome and trusted connections with family and friends in a manner that’s wise and safe.
• Recognize being tired – Rest physically, emotionally and mentally; rest in the Lord spiritually.

In closing, the Lord is the same God today as He was in the Sturbridge Village pioneering days.  Knowing the scripture “Unless the Lord builds the house, man labors in vain” (Ps 127:1A) to be true,  let’s allow God to build our heart’s desire and overcoming muscles so we may win our personal tug of war with our life’s current pioneering challenges too.  For us and in Him, there is no such thing as being pulled to defeat….only to victory!

Eph 6:10-18; Isaiah 41:10; 1 Cor 10:13; Psalm 27:7; Phil 4:13; Prov 3:5-6