Another Christian Cliche: God’s Strongest Soldier
I’ve seen the photos and memes of one particular phrase floating around the past several years and I bet you have too. It’s this: God gives the hardest battles to his strongest soldiers. Judging by how frequently it’s shared, it’s a rather popular sentiment. 
After all, it sounds good. Perhaps even a trifle comforting. There’s nothing we need more in the middle of our personal storms to know that our crisis won’t destroy us. That we’re strong enough to handle it and emerge victorious.
I understand the warm fuzzies that come from this well-intentioned phrase but honestly, I believe the idea that God gives his toughest battles to His strongest soldiers is wrong.
Here’s the thing: thinking we’re strong enough to handle a hard battle might be the very reason we’re having a battle in the first place. Let me explain.
Being one of the ‘strongest soldiers’ implies that we have strength of our own to fight and emerge victorious. It’s saying that we can handle a tougher challenge, more so than the ‘weaker’ soldiers out there. Isn’t this a form of pride? Not that we’re going through a tough time, but because we believe we are strong enough to handle it on our own?
The blunt truth is, we’re not strong enough to handle our storms. Speaking for myself, I have trouble getting through the day-to-day stuff, much less the big stuff that life throws us: the cancer diagnosis, the job change, marital stress, wayward children, financial difficulties, cranky people, etc. We all go through tough, messy stuff and a sure way to make a messy situation even worse is to think we can handle it on our merits and abilities.
God doesn’t give us those battles because He thinks we’ve got it together. If we did, we wouldn’t have needed a Savior. Sometimes, we go through some tough stuff because we need to work on our weak areas, our sin-filled cracks that we’ve so desperately tried to cover up. He has to strengthen us, toughen us up to prepare us for something greater on down the road. 
Think of it like a trainer trying to prepare an boxer for a fight. Say the trainer lets the athlete sleep in late, eat donuts and potato chips nonstop, and allows him to spend most of his day watching TV. What happens when the athlete must step into the boxing ring and strap those gloves around his sugar-coated fingers? Yeah, he’ll get creamed.
A good trainer pushes the athlete to grow stronger, faster. For each milestone, the trainer sets another and another. He adds more weights, more resistance until the athlete is in prime fighting shape. It involves a lot of sweat, a lot of determination and a lot of pain. Far from the donut-eating, television watching scenario we often prefer.
It’s the old karate kid wax-on, wax-off mentality. We may not always understand why we are going through something that doesn’t make sense, but if we want to survive in the ring, we have to trust our Trainer.
If we let Him, God can use those battles to chip away the hard places in us until we resemble His Son.
We don’t move in our own strength. We move in His. And ultimately, God’s children don’t need to fight for victory. Jesus already bought that when He rose and conquered death. We fight from a position of victory. Switching your perspective changes the battle. 
Yield to the Trainer. Keep fighting. Keep growing. Keep on keeping on. Your Trainer knows what He’s doing.
Have you ever gone through a hard time that you didn’t understand only to see God use it in a big way? I would love to hear your thoughts!
Comments 6
Maybe that cliche’ referres more to Job than most people?
I think of my self as a wounded warrior …one who has gone through hardships and struggles and made it through the dark time to the other side with Jesus help. Wonder, but wiser and more able to show the same compassion and love for others going through the same thing we went through. The love and compassion Christ showed us. ♡
Our strength is measured by our faith in Jesus. Not physical or mental strength. Did Jesus not say physical strength does not matter? I believe when people are saying this statement they are thinking these weak outcasts God chose had immense faith in Him. They were strong in faith, but weak in other ways. So really God does give His hardest battles to His strongest soldiers. The ones who have most faith in Him. ? stay blessed, in Jesus name.
However I do agree with you that we have no strength of our own, our efforts have no weight. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, without Him, we can do noting.
Your view is yours. Respected but not correct.
Consider, God knew us before we were born. Chose us for such a time as this. Abraham, Moses, David, Job and many others were given in their weakness incredible trials
Because God knew each one made them stronger. He selected the time, way and crisis specific to teach them more about Loving, trusting, hoping and increasing faith in the Lord. In all things.
What “strongest soldiers” expresses is simple God has made your ready for more. Because he knows our faith.
Consider Christ parable…(I paraphrase): You we’re trusted to be in charge of few…before you are in charge of many”
And
the Centurion who said I am a man under authority. I tell this man go. I know he went”
Christ marveled and said not even my own people have shown this faith…your servant is healed…”
One clearly sees God chooses his actions for his children based on love, hope and faith.
So God recognizes our strength by our faith – hope- love in him.
It is not pride. It is faith God knows how he formed, sharpened and tested us for more of his divine will.
Consider this
Hello,
I think it totally depends and may vary from individual to individual as per his/her life experience, upbringing, society, or people around to extract the meaning as per his/her perception towards seeing the world or things.
I think when someone is facing a tough time in life or going through a difficult phase in life the quote gives the doer a sense of confidence that he or she has the capacity or caliber to overcome the current phase and rise in life again. I don’t understand the point where Pride comes into the picture when a human being is going through multiple problems in life, he or she will do anything and everything to overcome the situation. This is where the quote also guides us to face the problem and not give up or take a path that is not ethically correct or inhumane. I have hit rock bottom and failed multiple times in my 20 & early 30 life span only to rise again with more success and maturity. I had asked this question to myself whether I can overcome this obstacle which looks tougher or rather impossible than any previous one I had ever faced. I came across this quote and found it is so true, but that doesn’t mean I will invite every trouble in life to ensure I prove how tough I am. Nobody wants a problem or tough situation in life but when we come across one, we need to look at it and say it loud, this is SPARTA !! Solve the problem with intelligence to ensure it doesn’t arise in the future, don’t believe in a quick fix that may trigger back soon but look at long-term solutions.
Conclusion: This quote is only to motivate someone who is going through tough situations in life. I strongly believe when you are surrounded by wolfs or lions nobody will have thought of being proud but the quote will help to person to think about how to come out of the situation rather than give up and surrender to those wolfs or lions.
NOTE: This is my opinion or view as an individual but that doesn’t mean I do not respect yours. I respect everybody’s opinion but I follow only what my heart and brain suggest me to do. Keep your weapons(intelligence) and armor(faith & confidence) ready as life is full of surprises and uncertainty, look at the bright side we are the most intelligent creation of god so don’t give up till the problem says “I give up, you won”.
I’m going through the most difficult struggle of my life caring for parents with different levels of dementia and this phrase actually grates on my nerves. Also, “God won’t out on you more than you can hear”. When I reread 1 Corinthians 10:13” I realized that phrase refers to temptation, not to the struggles we endure.
I so wish that someone would teach us that even after we’ve accepted Christ as savior, Lord and master of our lives, that life will still throw stones in our path that can only be overcome by building up our faith muscle.
Thank you for your blog.