The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Good Fight"
"We live our present lives on a spiritual battlefield, whereupon if possible, we would smell the smoke of conflict as we awaken to every new day. Somebody does not want you and me to trust God today."
Trusting God in a fallen world involves conflict termed by the Apostle Paul as "the good fight of faith" (I Timothy 6:12).
Occasionally, foes of the Lord Jesus Christ refer to faith as a crutch wielded by the weak. Scripture, however, affirms faith as a shield borne by the saints who recognize the absolute necessity of dependence on God in order to overcome assaults by enemies far more cunning and able than ourselves. "The just shall live by faith" declare both Old Testament and New (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17). Failure to live by faith results in exposure to "the fiery darts of the wicked," purposed by the world, the flesh, and the devil to lead the unsuspecting away from the only true life human hearts can know - "to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).
For the believer, recognition of the "good fight" must accompany our present experience in a world that "lieth in wickedness" (I John 5:19). Somebody - many somebodies, actually - do not want us to trust God. Make this personal. As a believer in the Lord Jesus, you will face assaults on your confidence in God every day of your present lifetime. This includes today. Walking by faith does not merely involve our fellowship with the Lord. We also make our way with friends who help, and in the presence of foes who seek to hinder. We rightly emphasize the former. However, we minimize the latter to our own detriment. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12). Little wonder we require a shield, along with the other armaments that comprise "the whole armor of God" (Ephesian 6:11-19).
The fight of faith is "good" because, by definition, the conflict leads us to trust God. James teaches that we "resist the devil" not by directly confronting our foe, a foolhardy and dangerous gesture even the warrior angel Michael avoided, but rather by heeding our calling to "submit yourselves therefore to God" (James 4:7; Jude 1:9). We fight the good fight of faith by doing what the engagement clearly implies - we "look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith," trusting "the Captain of our salvation" to lead and enable us (Hebrews 12:2; 2:10).
We live our present lives on a spiritual battlefield, whereupon if possible, we would smell the smoke of conflict as we awaken to every new day. Somebody does not want you and me to trust God today. Awareness of the challenge that awaits helps us to realize the very nature of the conflict. Everything in our life flows from how well we know and trust God. Again, "the just shall live by faith." The fight - the good fight of faith - provides opportunity to do exactly that which our enemies seek to hinder. Let us therefore get our spiritual dander up, realizing that the challenges we face in trusting God are not simply about our flesh. No, somebody does not want you and me to trust our Lord today. By the grace of God, and our faith therein, may they not be successful.
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."
(II Corinthians 10:3-5)
"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."
(I John 5:4)
Weekly Memory Verse
"In Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
(Psalm 16:11)
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