Winston Churchill once said, "Wars are not won by evacuations."
This was true as the Prime Minister led England in WWII, and it remains so for believers seeking to advance the kingdom of God today.
Yet, as believers assess the nastiness of living in an increasingly apostate culture, retreating looks pretty good to them... as they see themselves as ill-equipped to contend with a society becoming steeped in unbelief.
But... ever since God put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, retreat has not been a luxury for His people.
He calls us to engage, and He has equipped us to do so better than we think.
The Apostle Paul makes this clear in his familiar 'armor of God' passage (Eph.6:10-20).
There Paul notes our fundamental struggle is spiritual and requires spiritual weapons.
God has given us such weapons in the truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is His Word.
In light of this provision, our problem is not that we are poorly armed... it's that we've laid down our weapons too easily.
And the need of our day is to take these tools of battle up again with prayer. Not retreat.