“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” — Romans 12:12 Evil has no fear of the strong. 

It has seen kings and warriors come and go. It has survived empires, crushed armies, and whispered lies into the ears of the proud. But there is one thing it has never been able to conquer — hope. Hope is the quiet resistance of the soul. It is not loud, it is not glamorous, and it rarely gets applause. But it endures. When evil burns cities, hope rebuilds from ashes. When lies echo through the world, hope whispers truth into one person’s heart, and that is enough to start a movement. Evil hates hope because hope reminds it of something eternal. It reminds darkness that it cannot write the final word. Every act of hope is rebellion against despair, and every moment of faith is an act of war against the enemy of light. Evil cannot destroy what it cannot define. It can twist words, corrupt institutions, and break bodies, but it can never reach that sacred part of you where hope lives, the place where God breathes. Hope is not emotion; it is evidence of God’s presence within you. The enemy does not fear your pain; it fears your persistence. When you wake up after the worst night of your life and decide to pray anyway, that terrifies hell. When you have lost everything but still choose to believe that good will come, that is divine warfare. When you speak life into a dead situation, evil flees because resurrection is the one language it cannot understand. So hold your hope like a blade. Sharpen it with prayer. Guard it with truth. And when the enemy comes for your peace, remember: you are not defending something fragile, you are wielding something eternal. Hope is not weakness. Hope is fire. And darkness burns when you carry it. 

“Teach us to number our days, so we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Psalm 90 verse 12

Wisdom is one of the greatest gifts God gives, but it never comes cheaply. No one becomes wise through comfort. No one becomes wise by avoiding struggle. God shapes wisdom in the same places He shapes character: in pressure, in patience, and in pain.

The truth is simple.
Wisdom costs something.
It always has.

Every battle you survived taught you to see more clearly. Every mistake you made trained you to discern faster. Every disappointment forced you to look for what truly matters. Every storm pushed you closer to God, because there was nowhere else safe to stand.

You did not get wiser by winning every fight.
You became wiser because you kept walking when life tried to break you.

Wisdom grows when a man or woman refuses to run from the truth. When they face their fears instead of burying them. When they trust God even when nothing makes sense. When they listen more than they speak. When they accept correction without losing their identity. When they look at who they were yesterday and decide to grow today.

Wisdom does not demand perfection.
It demands honesty.

The kind of honesty that says,
“I do not know everything, but I know God is with me.”

The cost of wisdom is paid in moments you thought would destroy you.
But God used them to develop you.

You paid for wisdom when relationships failed.
You paid for wisdom when you carried grief no one else understood.
You paid for wisdom when you wrestled with your past.
You paid for wisdom when you walked through loneliness and kept your faith.
You paid for wisdom when you forgave people who never apologized.
You paid for wisdom when you refused to become bitter.

These moments did not make you weaker.
They made you wiser.
They made you harder to fool and easier to lead.
They made you compassionate without being blind.
They taught you how to walk with God instead of running ahead of Him.

Wisdom is costly, but it is priceless.
Once God gives it, nothing in this world can steal it.

So today, thank God for what you survived.
Thank Him for the lessons that hurt, but healed you.
Thank Him for the strength to keep going when you wanted to stop.
Thank Him for every hard moment that made you wiser, steadier, and more rooted in His truth.

Because all of it had purpose.
And none of it was wasted.

• What lesson did God teach you during a difficult season that you would never have learned in comfort?
   
• Where has your perspective matured because of something you endured?
   
• What part of your story carries wisdom that someone else needs today?
   
• What is God asking you to see more clearly right now?
   

Ask Him to open your heart and sharpen your understanding.
Wisdom begins with willingness.

For many veterans, the war does not end when the uniform comes off. The noise fades, the structure disappears, but the weight remains.

The question is not whether God was present in combat. The real question is this:

Where is God now?

Scripture does not teach that God only meets you once you are healed. It teaches the opposite.

Psalm 34:18
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

God does not wait for you to get yourself together. He comes close in the aftermath, in the rubble, in the exhaustion, in the quiet.

Military life provides structure, mission, brotherhood, and identity. When it ends, many veterans experience silence. Not peace. Silence.

That silence often feels like abandonment, but it is not absence. It is transition.

Sometimes God meets people after the fire, not during the noise.

Many veterans struggle with faith because they believe God should have prevented the trauma, stopped the loss, or changed the outcome.

But Scripture shows us something steadier.

Isaiah 43:2
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

Notice the wording. Not if you pass through. When.