Stay Frosty Soldier

Stay Frosty, Soldier (Read time ≈ 10 minutes)
2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV)
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
 
        “Stay frosty, soldier!” A military slang term meaning, keep cool, calm and collected but be on your guard and ready for action. These things can be hard to do simultaneously. Be ready for action when at any moment in a time when enemy fire could come blazing in faster than a blink of an eye, and you want me to remain calm?! The ability to do this is one of the many things that separates a trained soldier from a common civilian. In moments when regular every day people would be in a panic, hyperventilating and perhaps completely shutting down all together a soldier remains cool, calm and collected and ready for battle, aware of what is happening around them at all times ready to focus, and take the battle to the enemy. A soldier, “stays frosty”, ready for anything, prepared for battle, possessing the power to fight and the sound mind to efficiently win the fight.
 
        If you haven’t already guessed, I’m not here to talk about the military… At least, not that kind of military. If you call yourself a Christian, you are calling yourself a child of the Most High God (2 Corinthians 6:18)! But also, if you call yourself a Christian, you are calling yourself a soldier in the army of the Lord of Angel Armies (Psalm 89:8 NLT). We are told to put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) and get ready for war! King David is one of the most renown warriors throughout the entire Bible and even throughout the history of man. His conquest and victory throughout his life were substantial. Psalm 18 is one of many Psalms written by King David about his conquest and victories that were given to him by the Lord of Angel Armies. King David stayed frosty. A good soldier is not just strong physically, but is resoundingly strong mentally. King David speaks in Psalm 18 of strength and power crushing his enemies (Psalm 18:32-50). But before he does this, he takes care of the mental battle (psalm 18:1-6, 28-31) because he knows that if he is not mentally and spiritually sound before battle, he will not use his physicality properly. To spiritually stay frosty means to keep your mind calm and focused on the truth of God so that when the battle heats up, you’re ready and focused for the battle at hand.
 
        Now, here is where we take a turn. Imagine with me, soldiers on a battlefield, I don’t know about you, but my mind immediately goes to modern American soldiers in desert military camo, in a brown desert land in the middle east, in foreign land with no such home field advantage. My mind likely goes there first because of the generation I was raised in. Now, imagine these soldiers, marching as a squad through a ghost town of a city. No enemies spotted visually but they know they are around already. The fear of the potential threat of the enemy seeing them before they see their enemy. If your enemy gets the drop on you, it is lethal. Do we realize that every day of our lives spiritually is like this? We don’t know what… or who is waiting for us around the corner, but we must be ready. Now, these men, are trained physically for battle, ready for anything. Imagine, something catches the eye of one of the soldiers off to the side, he turns his head, nothing there. He goes over to investigate as soon as he turns the corner a bullet hums past his head into the wall behind him. Immediately, he hunches down and runs for cover. He is now separated from his squad and taking enemy fire. Now what? Is he the only one taking fire? Are his fellow soldiers taking fire or is it only him? Was anyone hit? The soldier saw no enemies, 3 shots were fired at him before he found cover. Now, here is the issue, the soldier than gets on his walkie-talkie and signals distress to his fellow soldiers. “Taking heavy enemy fire! I’m surrounded! Multiple bogies, heavy artillery. CALL IN THE AIR SUPPORT IM GONNA DIIIIEEEEEEE!!!!!”. That is not very frosty, is it? Someone, responds on the walkie, “Three shots heard, target spotted and eliminated. Location of other bogies?” Yikes. Not a good look for a soldier, is it? Now, let’s return to reality. Our every day life. If we are soldiers in the army of the Lord of Angel Armies then those who you go to church with, do bible studies with, that is your squad, troop, platoon, whatever you want to call it. When the battle rages, strength and love are required, but so is a sound mind. The illustration I just gave is something that I find common today in 2024. You’ve heard the phrase, “err on the side of caution” to express a desire for extreme caution, just to be safe. I call this, erring on the side of dramatic.
 
        Obviously, we’re not taking real physical live fire on a daily basis, but we are spiritually taking firey darts from our enemy (Ephesians 6:16) on a daily. When those darts start flying, do we act like this soldier on the battlefield? Erring on the side of dramatic. What does this look like? Simply put, this looks like facing trials in life and being dishonest about the details of what is happening to us, around us, or how it is affecting us. Exaggerating details of the trial we face, over emphasizing our emotions we are feeling, making things in our life seem more dramatic than they truly are. Why do we do this? Because we want sympathy, we crave attention, we want to appear interesting, we want help, we want to one up other peoples trials… the list could go on and on. Other than this being clearly identified as lying, what are the dangers of this? Well, to draw back to the battlefield illustration, if we are all soldiers in a live battle, then there is real danger all around us, not only us, but our brothers and sisters as well. We do not always know the battles that are raging around us. In spiritual warfare, there are wars that wage on that are virtually silent and invisible, that we are never aware of. If we, as soldiers in our every day life tend to err on the side of dramatic, we are calling out to our brothers and sisters for resources that perhaps will draw from the effectiveness of their war that is waging on silently. Their battles can be lost because they get roped into yours, unnecessarily. As we report our trials, two or three firey darts on a rough day turns into a two or three dozen. See where this is going? We can be this soldier on the battlefield calling out about our battle as our brothers are silently under intense fire. This can be detrimental to the overall battle. This is not staying frosty.
 
        Here is the key here, I am, by no means, suggesting that we do not discuss with one another the trials and the battles we face on a daily basis. In fact, we absolutely should. We have to be there to help and sharpen one another (Proverbs 27:17). What I am suggesting is that as we train our hands for battle (power), and we go forth in the Gospel into a lost world (love) that we remain focused, stay frosty, and not neglect the importance of a focused mind (sound mind). That as we go to war together, we report battle details to one another accurately and clearly so that when the war is waging, we are all effectively fighting side by side with a supernatural focus on the battle at hand so that the Lord can bring us the resounding victory He promises for us and our brothers and sister. We must remain cool, calmed and collected on this battlefield because there is a lot at stake. Stay Frosty, soldier.