The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Good Fight"
"Fight the good fight of faith" (I Timothy 6:12).
Why is faith said to be a "good fight?" First, let us acknowledge that trusting God in a fallen world does involve ongoing conflict. Indeed, anyone who ever says that walking by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ merely involves a crutch or an escape has never actually attempted to walk by faith. We awaken to every new morning on a spiritual battlefield wherein enemies seek to damage us by discouragement and distraction. "There are many adversaries" wrote the Apostle Paul, who well knew that in both personal terms and in God's callings, great challenge awaits (I Corinthians 16:9).
Nevertheless, Paul terms the conflict as "good." Time does not presently permit more than a brief consideration of why we should view challenge to our faith in such terms. However, we surely do well to begin by realizing the opportunity that lies before us when our enemies tempt us to distrust God. That is, the fight calls us to engage by "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). In our present lives, we require conflict to keep us conscious of God and His truth. Not a one of us would continue to walk with our Lord apart from challenges and difficulties. "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).
This is not easy truth. But it is truth. We presently require trouble no less than triumph to hone our remembrance of God and illuminate our need to maintain conscious communion with Him. "Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now have I kept Thy Word" (Psalm 119:67). Anything that does this, including a fight, must be viewed as good in ultimate terms. This does not minimize the realties of our challenges, nor does it imply that God takes pleasure in seeing us hurt. He does love us enough, however, to determine and allow the conflict that reminds us of our need for Him, and even more, confirms to us His faithfulness as "a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1).
The day will come when swords and spears, both spiritually and physically, will be reformed into instruments of peace (Isaiah 2:4). This is not that day. No, this is the day when we awaken upon a battlefield. Even more, we awaken to find the Captain of our salvation near at hand, and even closer in heart. He calls us to engage in the fight, the good fight of faith, whereby our first responsibility involves trusting Him as the holy means whereby we go forth in His life and enabling. He has already overcome every enemy we will ever face during His own lifetime that ended in death, but began anew and continues forevermore in the glory of resurrection. As the saying goes, born again believers do not fight for victory, but rather from victory, the triumph of the empty earthly tomb and the occupied Heavenly throne. How could we not view such an opportunity, amid all its challenges, as a "good fight?"
Sometimes it seems that the enemy of our soul wins
over and over and over and over again.
But if we could see the Truth more clearly, my friend,
we'd see Christ triumph over death, hell, and sin,
over and over and over and over again…
Over and over and over and over again.
The tomb is empty, the throne above occupied.
For Christ is risen again, from death glorified.
Oh remember when hot, stinging tears fill your eyes,
the triumph He's shone so many times in our lives,
over and over and over and over again…
Over and over and over and over again.
Forever draws nigh, we will be with Him there soon, my friend.
The trials of this life will be gone when we're with Him in Heaven.
Glories we'll see, majesty without end,
that sing the glad hymn, Christ is risen again,
over and over and over and over again…
Over and over and over and over again.
"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."
(I John 5:4)
Weekly Memory Verse
"For Thou, LORD, hast made me glad through Thy work: I will triumph in the works of Thy hands."
(Psalm 92:4)
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