The Ukraine-Russia war rumbles on. In the early days, it looked like Ukraine might be quickly overrun. Then a gallant fightback and western support along with significant failings and weaknesses on the Russian side led to the balance shifting in Ukraine’s favour. However the counter offensive was largely ineffective and now, once again the balance seems to favour Russia. There are even fears once again that Russia could win the war.
The elephant in the room is that, I suspect, many politicians in the West were never really that concerned about seeing Russia lose and Ukraine win. I’m not just referring to the out and out Putin apologists here. You see, for Western/NATO real-politic purposes, whisper it quietly but a stalemate, a long drawn out, forever war, or even a long and costly war that does lead to Russian victory may be seen as not a bad scenario by some.
The risk with Ukraine getting closer to victory is that it makes Russia more and more unpredictable. Will they cross lines, the use of chemical weapons, dirty bombs, a nuclear strike for example? Whilst this would be unlikely to involve direct strikes on NATO or EU targets the crossing of the line would test resolve from the International Community. Would there be a meaningful response and if not would that embolden, not only Putin but also other malign players?
Furthermore, we have learnt to live with the conflict. We’ve grown used to the end of cheap food and cheap fuel. There were always going to be other factors affecting inflation and now the increases in costs are priced in, it seems that the charts are stabilising.
So, a long term war in which Russia continues to exhaust its resources for little benefit, weakening the regime and making it harder to threaten other neighbours will be seen favourably in some quarters. I am not saying that this is the right way to view things but we shouldn’t be surprised If it is the attitude held by some.
Which brings me to my main point here. In my experience, it is possible for people to have the same attitude towards spiritual warfare. This is especially true when we realise that spiritual warfare isn’t about the spooky stuff but about putting to death sinful desires and living godly lives in our homes, workplaces, churches and communities. Winning those spiritual battles can seem costly. It also means that sometimes we can prefer to hold onto struggles in our lives and dare I say it, even prefer not to have a prayer answered because if the problem goes away, then so too does the attention.
The challenge then is this. Do we really want to see prayer answered? Do we want to change? If so we need to address the elephant in the room.
Faithroots 