Wednesday, December 17, 2013
Fight The Good Fight
When we think of spiritual warfare it is easy to think of grand images of us in our whole armor of God wrestling and swinging our sword at the dark forces with our prayers and songs. This is good, and certainly a part of what we may do. However, there is another aspect that is at least easy for me to overlook. Perhaps it is for you as well. It is what Paul addressed in his first letter to Timothy.
1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
There really is much to consider in this passage. For this writing, I only want to address first six words. Let me begin by saying these words have multiple meanings and shade of meanings, so there is likely more than one way to view them. This would make sense because our God is big enough to encompass them all. Let me present one that for me, as I studied it just now, has given me valuable insights for my own fight, and may well assist you in yours as well.
The first word fight has several possible meanings, one of which is to struggle as in contending for something. There is some opposition. The word good here can mean beautiful or morally good. The second fight can mean place of assembly or where the battle takes place. And the word faith can mean persuasion or conviction. Putting that all together we could get “Stay in the struggle in the beautiful assembly of persuasion and conviction.” For me that can mean be steadfast to keep believing the good.
God has very good things for us. But Paul told the Hebrews that we must believe that God not only is, but He is on the side of those that seek Him like the breath they breath. It reminds me of a story I once heard about a student that wanted the teacher to teach him how to achieve something. The teacher told him to meet him by the river. When they both walked into the river about chest deep the teacher told the student to turn around and take a breath. He then pushed the student under the water and held him there. The student assumed there was some meaning so he obediently stayed under the water until he needed more air. When he tried to get up, the teacher held him down. His lungs began to hurt so he tried harder to get up. The teacher held him under the water. Fear set in. The student began to flail as his lungs cried out for air. He was afraid his reflexes would kick in and he would suddenly drink into his lungs the cold river water. He fought harder and harder, all the while the teacher held him under. He was beginning to lose hope, his thoughts became cloudy, and with all his might he lunged upward, just as the teacher released him. He surfaced choking and gasping for breath.
“What were you doing?!” he shouted at the teacher. The teacher stood there quietly, smiled, and said words he would never forget.
“When you want to succeed as much as you just wanted that breath, you will not fail,” replied the teacher, turning to walk to the shore.
We must lay hold of our convictions, our faith, within ourselves. This is one of the hardest yet most important battles. If we can win this one (and God will help us win it), then we will be able to win most any battle with God on our side.
Prayer
Father, we praise You as the Most High King. Help us to learn to trust You, and live in Your ways. Help us to see Your works, hear Your words, and say and do them. It is really hard for us at times to understand all of this. Please give us Your wisdom and understanding. Help us to be what we need to be and become to bring Your kingdom to this earth. Help us to want that more than breath itself. In Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name. Amen.