"Fortitude Realized"

"But let all those that put their trust in Thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because Thou defendest them: let them also that love Thy Name be joyful in Thee." (Psalms 5:11) 'The definition of fortitude is having strong will to face danger or pain: an athlete who finishes the race in spite of an injury is an example of fortitude.' So; if you have stuck with me through the weird and strange translations, then after the battle, it is time to truly realize who we are in Jesus Christ! What battle? you might be wondering; Really? I would hope that you are not! But just in case that you are, I will play it out for you. We started out with what was to be a simple prayer of asking God for His protection; something that we felt that we were entitled to, as being one of His children. Then, in the process of asking Him for this protection, we discover that there is a condition by which we enter into His protective fortress; that being the condition of holiness, for He is Holy! After weighing our condition against that of His Holiness, we discover that we are found wanting, and that we are in need of some serious work to be done in the area of righteousness; even seeing the things by which we have fallen short of, and even to the point of seeing that we were deceived by what we thought were our good intentions, when in reality, we were only serving ourselves. And then, we make our determination to clean house; yet, we have only chosen to clean out certain things, while still holding onto the things that we hold dear. But, in holding onto these things, we find that our prayers are being given from our mouth and not from our heart; this is due to the rebellion of our heart in not completely giving Him our all! Finally, we come to realize that even those things which we thought were not such a big deal to hold onto, are the things which cause the Holy Spirit to be quenched in our lives; therefore, causing us to be outside of the protection that we seek! And, after doing battle with the strongholds that cause us to hold onto those things, we can finally come to the point where we put all of our trust in Him! We can now trust in Him, because we have released everything that was holding us back from putting all of our trust in Him! Therefore; we can now rejoice!!! We can ever be joyful, because we know that He is defending us, because we have now surrendered everything to Him! In this; we know that we love Him; therefore, we can be joyful in Him, because we are secure and fortified in His Love, and nothing can remove us from His hand of protection!!! "If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of Truth; Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." (John 14:15-18)