BEFORE YOU ENTER INTO 'BATTLE,' ASK GOD IF IT'S THE RIGHT TIME AND PLACE

BEFORE YOU ENTER INTO 'BATTLE,' ASK GOD IF IT'S THE RIGHT TIME AND PLACE

Do you pray before you wage "war"? Do you ask the Holy Spirit before you engage in a battle? Do you listen to -- hear -- the "Voice from the tree" before you take up shield and sword?

It's a question for all of us, and it follows this main question: do you sometimes fight fights that are not yours?

We all know how it is: We see something that's wrong -- even morally wrong, or unfair, or something that can cause potential harm to a person or circumstance, just isn't right -- and we want to jump right in and offer our direction, sometimes with force. This occurs most frequently within families: we place ourselves in a corrective mode.

And often, we're right; something is amiss; something's wrong. There may be sin. There may be danger that someone is blind to. We may be wronged. We want to "fight back." We draw up a legal brief in our minds -- tossing and turning over just the right things to say and trying to memorize the order and everything we want to say, in retaliation, in defense.

But if we move into the zone of battle, of intervention, without asking God first if He wants us to enter that zone -- and whether it's the right time (if we do discern to enter) -- we often cause ourselves great agitation and can do more harm, to ourselves and others, than good.

Didn't David do this before he went to war -- listen for the Voice at the top of a tree, the Voice up there, the voice that binds matters in Heaven and earth?

A preacher recently pointed this out: When we wait on the Lord, and move in the Spirit, we move with force. His Force. We are on the winning side.

Our words and actions count, every one of them.

They take root.

A matter is greatly improved or outright resolved. Evil is dispelled. A "legal brief' needed only to be a few words.

An illness, perhaps, is cast out. (How much illness is caused by evil!)

The opposite transpires when we and not God are the judge.

Do you enter the wrong battlefield -- or at least, at the wrong time? And do you fight fire with fire?

(If you do, you will only get more fire!)

"When David inquired of the Lord, He said, 'You shall not go directly up; circle around behind them and come at them in front of the balsam trees," says (2 Samuel 5). "'It shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall act promptly, for then the Lord will have gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines.' Then David did so, just as the Lord had commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer."

It was in the Lord's timing (not David's). The result: victory.

When we move before the motion of God -- when the motion, the timing, is ours solely -- we risk hidden dangers that only the Holy Spirit can search out. Don't be tempted to do something as a "do-gooder," for the sake of do-gooding (something that can cause tension with others, or stir up conflict, especially if it's based on pride), until you pray first -- preferably during Mass, or before the Blessed Sacrament, certainly during a Rosary. Even if you've done it before, and to good effect, pray each time it comes up, because each time is different.

Fear?

In God, we know no such thing. It is not a matter of fearing the fight. It is a matter of acting with prudence, which protects us from chinks in our armor and unnecessary hurt.