For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword…Hebrews 4:12, KJV

I recently had a very entertaining and enlightening discussion with a retired Army colonel. When the conversation turned to some of his experiences in combat, the colonel said something that really jumped out at me.

“There were many times when I was scared to death,” the colonel said. “When the world is crashing in around you, your brain just stops thinking.”

“How do you deal with situations like that?”, I asked. “What do you do?”

The colonel replied, “Since your brain isn’t thinking, you have to rely on your training. That’s why the military is so intent on doing drills ad naseum. When you do a drill 10,000 times, the drill is cemented in your psyche. When the trauma of combat shuts your thinking down, reflex takes over. The drills you learn in training are embedded in your reflexes, and they work to save your life when you can no longer think.”

As the colonel spoke these words, it dawned on me that I had never heard a better explanation as to why we Christians ought to drill the Word of God into our brains daily. We are soldiers engaged in spiritual warfare, and when the Enemy attacks, our brains very often shut down. When temptation comes, we often cease thinking clearly; our passions and our emotions crowd out rational thought. Yet if we drill the Word of God into our minds, reflex will take over when our thinking stops. In response to the fiery darts being shot at us, we will automatically retaliate with the Sword of the Lord, which triumphs over all.

James 4:7 teaches us to resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. But how can we resist such an attacker if we face him unarmed? We cannot, so we must arm ourselves with the only weapon that can overcome Satan and his minions – the Word of God. Only by saturating the battlefield with God’s Word can we hope to leave the field victorious!