"Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Ep. 6:15

"Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Ep. 6:15

  "The verse says, "Shod with the preparation of the gospel," or, "shod with the preparedness to run on the message of peace." -- is that all we should expect from the Christian life? To simply prepare to run seems like a small thing. Why does not Paul say that the feet of the soldier of Christ have been hardened by the actual running; strengthened, not by the preparation, but by the proclamation, of the gospel? Because if he had said that, he would have cut off the largest part of the army. It is only a limited number of Christ's soldiers who are allowed to serve in the field; the most part have to be content with readiness to serve. The souls who do great things in the world are the minority; the mass can only will to do them. Now I may say, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings," and yet my own feet may not move. I may be forbidden to join the band of active workers. I may be, perhaps, an invalid. I may be struggling with poverty. I may be a victim of nerves. I may be cumbered with much household service. I may be hopelessly commonplace. In all these things my Father says to me "Stay at home." But, in spite of all these things, I have the will to go; I would go if these things did not forbid me; I do go in the spirit every day. I carry messaged with the feet of my heart. I am armed with the preparation to be a Christian soldier - with the readiness to serve if service were possible. I have given to God my will to give, and He has accepted it as my uniform; He has ordered me a soldier's pay.

  Isaac, the son of Abraham, are you lamenting the lack of your father's armor? Are you sighing that while he conquered nations, you are only permitted to dig wells? Nat, but your sigh is itself a complete set of armor to you. Your feet are shod with the preparation, the readiness to go. Yours is the red fire of Mount Moriah, though it is all within. Yours is the resistance unto blood, though no one sees the fight. Yours is the sacrifice unto death, although you did not die. In your wells of water God beholds the possibilities of the deep sea. 

In your petty strife’s God hears the roar of the great battle. In the troubles of your tiny pool, God imputes to you the wrestling of the angel. 

Your sphere is narrow by your heart is wide; stand forth and take your crown -- the crown of intentions unfulfilled, the prize for mighty deeds designed to do. Your monument is side by side with Abraham's: his has the inscription - "The man who journeyed"; yours has the tribute of a larger hope - The person who was prepared to go."  George Matheson.