How do you respond to that unfair comment or inconsiderate request? Will you give in to the temptation of instant gratification? Are you mastered by your spirit, or do you master it? These are the real battles where Jesus calls you to fight and makes you a conqueror.

Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. – Proverbs 16:32

I went through a stretch where I was obsessed with the game Risk. I had a hard time gathering a group people to sit down for a four hour slugfest, so I played against the computer. I usually lost, but the challenge made it more alluring. The variables, the complexity, and the unpredictable swings of fortune–all of it kept me hooked. Then the winner-takes-all stakes spiked my competitive juices.

For achievement-addicts, strategy games like Risk scratch an itch. It presents you with one clear and simple objective (global domination) where you can easily track your successes or failures. The Bible teaches that your conquest instinct isn’t wrong—you just need to aim it at the right goal.

This proverb takes examples that pop. When someone is mighty, you know it. When someone takes down a city, you’ll hear about it. These aren’t achievements that people just stumble into. They don’t happen overnight. Cities aren’t masses of people bumbling into each other, wondering when someone is going to take them over. To conquer a city you need a well-trained army, a thorough knowledge of its weak spots, strategy, patience, and perseverance through losses. It takes grit.

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