If we look at the world around us, and even go back centuries, there have always been physical wars between nations and even between tribes within nations.

It seems there is a predisposition towards fighting, be it over land, riches or people. Our history doesn’t serve us well in terms of peaceful co-existence with our neighbours and our fellow man.

I was born a little after the end of the Second World War. This war claimed the lives of at least 69 million people, including military personnel and civilians, plus deaths from war-related disease and famine. The figures for the First World War are estimated at 20 million deaths and 21 million more who were wounded.

Our history classes at school were full of notable dates of battles within the UK over many centuries. You may remember some of these including Bannockburn and Flodden. I now read that Russia’s incursion into Ukraine has cost more than 600,000 Russian lives, and tens of thousands of Ukraine soldiers have also died.

What is this all about? Well, as well as the war between nations and tribes, I suggest and believe that there is a war going on in each one of us. A war of good and evil. A force within you fighting to show you the way of goodness and righteousness and lead you there, while another voice seeks to turn you away, and tempts you with all sorts of promises of fun and life which often turn out to the opposite.

There is also the lure of alcohol and drugs. The lure of amassing great wealth. The temptations to do wrong which seem to attack us personally in all sorts of ways, often with peer pressure to get us involved in all sorts of wrongdoing.

The good news is that good always triumphs over evil. Just as light always dismisses darkness.

The Bible tells us to submit ourselves to God and to resist the devil and He will flee from us. And temptation will no longer have a hold on us.

God and His Holy Spirit are always there to direct us in the right ways and we can rely on them fully, 24/7.

Time to trust our lives to Him.