The saddest symptom about so many so-called Christians is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a scanty round of formal religious services once on twice a week. But the great spiritual warfare - its watching and struggling, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests - of all this they appear to know nothing at all.
The worst chains are those which are neither felt nor seen by the prisoner. We may take comfort about our souls if we know anything of inward fight and conflict. It is the invariable companion of genuine Christian holiness.Do we feel anything of the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do the things we could? (Gal. 5:17) Are you conscious of two principles within us, contending for the mastery?
Do we feel anything of war in our inward man? Well, let us thank God for it! It is a good sign. It is strongly probable evidence of the great work of sanctification. All true saints are soldiers. Anything is better than apathy, stagnation, deadness and indifference.The very fact that Satan assaults us should fill our minds with hope. The child of God may be known by his inward warfare, as well as by his inward peace.
J.C Ryle
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