The Manual Has the Answer: Why We Struggle and How We Fight Back

Overcoming the Homefront Battles — Part 2 of 2

Every soldier remembers the manual. Whatever your job was, there was a technical manual or field manual that had the answer to your question, even on the days you didn’t fully understand why the answer was the answer. You trusted it because it had never failed you before. Eventually, as you matured in your job, the “why” started making sense too.

That’s exactly the relationship every believer is meant to have with God’s Word. When we hit a question or a struggle, we go to the Word first. Some days we understand why the answer is right. Other days we simply trust that it is — because it always has been.

Why Do We Struggle?

Scripture doesn’t dodge this question. Every one of us — saved or not — has a sinful nature we’re fighting against.

“For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. … O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” — Romans 7:15, 24-25

The apostle Paul, arguably the most mature believer in the New Testament, describes this exact tension. If Paul wrestled with it, we shouldn’t be shocked that we do too.

Here’s the good news: everyone has an answer available to them. For the person who hasn’t yet trusted Christ, the answer is the gospel accepted.

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” — Romans 6:23

For the believer, the answer is the gospel applied — daily, practically, in the choices we make (Romans 6:1-18).

How Do We Fight Back?

Scripture gives us four concrete strategies for combating our sinful nature, not as a checklist to earn God’s favor, but as the normal rhythm of a growing Christian life.

• Walk in the Spirit (Romans 8:1-14; Galatians 5:18-26; Ephesians 5:15)
• Immerse yourself in Scripture (Colossians 3:16; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 1 Peter 2:2)
• Practice spiritual discipline (1 Timothy 4:8)
• Serve others (Philippians 2:1-11; James 2:14-17)

You’re Not a Lost Cause

Despite whatever brokenness landed you on that list of struggles, here’s what’s true of you right now: you are immensely loved, extremely valuable, tremendously gifted, and desperately needed. God’s goal isn’t for you to arrive at perfection overnight — it’s for you to steadily and consistently change.

“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” — Philippians 1:6

That’s the foundation for everything else in this series. Next time, we take on one of the most common — and most misunderstood — homefront battles: anger. Part 1 of Overcoming Anger Here!

Join Us at Discipled Veteran Springfield, Missouri

You don’t have to fight the homefront battles alone. Discipled Veteran is a brotherhood of veterans and their spouses growing in genuine faith in Jesus Christ together — no lecture, just honest conversation, Scripture, and the kind of comradery you remember from the service.