"The Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle"...are our youth ready? Are WE ready :)?

 In Isaiah 13, there is an excerpt at the end of verse 4 and the beginning of verse 5 that made me think of the youth of today from many faiths:

"The Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the ^bbattle.  5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven"

Our youth have truly been chosen and mustered "from the end of heaven" to engage in the battle for truth and good on this world!  However, the opposition is fierce!

The other day, my son recommended the following scripture from his scripture study in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, and I thought it fit as the answer of these youth to that opposition:

 8 We are ^atroubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in ^bdespair;

 9 ^aPersecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not ^bdestroyed.

It is not going to be easy!  Freedom and truth was never easily defended.

Look at the life of George Washington.  I recently read "The Real George Washington" and was struck by the endless stream of tragedy, betrayal and deprevation that plagued that noble man and his efforts to gain freedom for America with his beleaguered, under-fed, under-clothed troops.  It was not pretty.  It was not perfect.  It was not simple.  It was an endless stream of hardship!

Our youth need to learn that, just because they are doing the right thing, at the right time, it may not be easy, perfect, or even bearable :).  It is a battle, in every sense of the word, and they must not get discouraged.

My daughter found a poem for a devotional some days ago that perfectly complements these ideas:

"Go Forth to Life" by Samuel Longfellow

Go forth to life, O child of earth!
Still mindful of thy heav’nly birth;
Thou art not here for ease, or sin,
But manhood’s noble crown to win.

Tho’ passion’s fires are in thy soul,
Thy spirit can their flames control;
Tho’ tempters strong beset thy way,
Thy spirit is more strong than they.

Go on from innocence of youth
To manly purity and truth;
God’s angels still are near to save,
And God Himself doth help the brave.

Then forth to life, O child of earth!
Be worthy of thy heav’nly birth!
For noble service thou art here;
Thy brothers help, thy God revere!

To touch it all off, I just came across this quote that my friend shared in her Vanguard group (I love connections!)
 from "The Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson"  Selected and Edited by
Robert N. Linscott
p.43 - The wise man in the storm prays God, not for safety from
danger, but for deliverance from fear.  It is the storm within which
endangers him, not the storm without.

Just because life isn't easy, it doesn't mean we are not doing what God wants us to do!