When we stop fighting, reject God’s commands and follow our own, we find ourselves en route to a shipwreck. Why? Because God won’t let us get away with it. When we justify our sin, we can’t expect God to do the same. When we’re proud, we can’t expect to receive grace from Him (1 Pet. 5:5). The problem is, when we’ve let go of the fight and of spiritual disciplines, it’s very hard to return to them. So how do we get back?

The book of Jonah is a good reminder to obey and trust God. But how often do we read it and still think we’re not like Jonah? I mean, he literally attempted to run from God, traveling the opposite direction God told him to go. We laugh when we read that because seriously? Come on, Jonah, everyone knows you can’t run from God! It’s almost a silly story that remains in children’s church because a younger audience is appropriate for such a basic, obvious lesson.

But one sign you’ve boarded your own boat to Tarshish is when you stop waging the good warfare.

Paul refers to war and war-like images many times in his epistles. Specifically, in 1 Tim. 1:18-19 he exhorts Timothy, “This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith.”

We know what God has called us to: Holiness, commitment, purity, growth in Scriptures and in Christ, evangelism, love, etc.

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