Rise

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O, weak and broken soldier, rise!
Get on your feet and fix your eyes
Upon your Captain, King and Lord,
Who bids you wield His living sword!

So what, your strength has slipped away,
You're weary from the race you've run,
So what, your body, broken lay,
You're not discharged! Your work's not done!

The weaker vessels show His pow'r;
The broken show it ev'ry hour.
So rise, and for His glory, strive!
By faith, from brokenness revive!

A soldier suffers hardship oft!
No featherbed of ease for him,
'Twould make him slow and weak and soft,
Instead of fell and fighting trim, so Rise!

Recall your purpose, high and grand,
A battle rages through the land,
The enemy has evil planned,
Against him you are called to stand so Rise!

Get up and stand against the flood!
And fear not death nor darkest grave,
But wrestle not with flesh and blood,
For they're the ones we fight to save.

Let love and light shine like a star,
And let the truth consume the lies,
Remember who and whose you are,
And when you fall don't fail      to      RISE!

Endure until the bitter end,
And ev'ry ounce of effort spend!
It matters not you're weak and small,
Your Captain is the Lord of All so RISE!

And put His mighty armor on!
And hold the line as soldiers must!
The dark will flee before the dawn;
It's His to win and ours to trust!

And        Rise!

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He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

The 2nd Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 12, verse 9

“Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”

The 2nd Letter to Timothy, Chapter 2, verse 3

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.”

The Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 6, verses 12-13

“Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”

The Letter to the Hebrews, Chapter 12, verse 3

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Postscript – Every child of God through faith in Jesus Christ is born into warfare, but the weapons of our warfare are not physical, and no son of Adam is our true enemy. Even so, the battle is real and many suffer real and lasting harm, so this war is more than mere metaphor.

It’s a pitfall of our nature (and one with which I am well acquainted) that we tend to be soft on ourselves and when we suffer hardship or injury, especially if it is particularly grievous, we at once turn all of our focus upon ourselves and in our self-pity think that we have somehow been excused from the conflict when, in fact, this is when and where the battle is thickest and the danger the greatest.

This collection of verses is written to my own soul, as it were, and is meant to somewhat mercilessly dispatch the several lies and excuses that have rallied against me and sought my destruction in the midst of my trials. Furthermore, it is meant as a strong exhortation to the endurance and faith without which, scripture is clear, we cannot hope to inherit the kingdom of heaven.

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Image credit: Frederic Edwin Church, 1860, “Twilight in the Wilderness,” Pubic Domain, courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

© Craig Sabin 2021 All rights reserved