Do you ever feel like you are in a battle that you cannot
win no matter what you do? How do you go about finding the strength to go on
and finish the fight with out being defeated?
Lets look—
In His Word!
…Today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do
not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, and do not tremble or be terrified
because of them; for the LORD your God is He who goes with you, to fight for
you against your enemies, to save you.
Deut. 20:3-4
This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will
strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses
of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of
the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all
this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for
the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands." 1 Sam 17:46-47
Blessed be the LORD my Rock,
Who trains my hands for war,
And my fingers for battle --
My lovingkindness and my fortress,
My high tower and my deliverer,
My shield and the One in whom I take refuge,
Who subdues my people under me. Ps 144:1-2
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to
the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for
pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that
exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into
captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all
disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6
Hey guess
what? When you are in a battle and you feel like you can’t win no matter how
hard you try you probably can’t! But you knew that already, so did I. If we
admit defeat we generally have been defeated and thus will loose the battle.
Why do we have
battles in the first place?
If we look at
the world for a moment we can see many reasons for battles. We grow in battles.
There has been some sort of conflict or another going on in our known world for
as long as I can remember. Most of us have lived through at least five wars,
which were full of battles. If you asked a president or prime minister why we
have wars and battles they would say it is to keep peace, or to provide freedom
to us in the world.
Now we will
look at the Biblical reasons. In 1 Samuel 17 you can read this week about David
and his battle with the Philistines. His purpose was to give God glory. He just
watched as did the rest of the crowd of men and soldiers until he heard the
Lord slandered! That was enough to get little David’s back up! How dare that
jerk insult his God, His Lord! That was
all it took to put David, a little shepherdboy into battle mode. David grew to
a man that day!
The Lord
Himself called Israel into battle many times in order to put at right the evil
of the world in their generations. They
grew as a nation with each battle they won!
When we are in
a battle we can only see a few things, but when we come out the other end we
can look back and see how much we have grown!
In the battle we see-
The enemy.
Know
your enemy! We need to seek out and find our enemy and watch him just
enough to know his weaknesses. We also
need to figure out our own weaknesses and shore them up! Sometimes it seems
that the battle is full of the enemy winning because we were not prepared. Face
it we all have weaknesses,
Lets take one step back and remember that we need to be prepared. Remember the scriptures we
read about the Armor of God, we need to have our gear together before we step
up.
We also have to know
the purpose of our battle. When we seek out our enemy we can remember that
we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but the true enemy is satan.
Sometimes we do not even really see who is causing the problems we are
struggling with, other times we look at the person involved. We need to
remember its not the person, we are angry with its the issue. Keep it real!
It is not our neighbor we are angry with, it is not the
friend who is messing up her life, it is definitely not God we are mad at; but
it is the devil who we are angry with.
We are fighting for the purpose God has given us to fight.
For the glory of God, and the furtherance of His kingdom!
Know
why you want to go into battle.
Also it has been said we need to choose our battles. I could get upset at my kids not making their
beds and ground them, or I can encourage them to do the right thing and go back
and teach them again how to make their beds.
If your battle is heavier than this, get on your knees and
ask the Lord to prepare you, read your Bible and get the right scriptures to
back you up, to encourage you… to prepare you!
We have studied our purpose out, we have studied on being
prepared, and now we are stepping into the battle.
Once we are face to face no turning back with a battle we
have to remember that we do not have to do the fighting ourselves! God does.
Looking again to Him to fight the fight for us, whether it
is a coworker or a boss who is coming down on you about everything you do
wrong, will keep peace in your life, and strength in the battle.
The Bible is full of scriptures encouraging you to keep your
mind on Him… Rom 10:11 says if we believe in Him , or Proverbs 3 says to trust
in Him, and He will make your path straight. That includes in battle and out of
battle.
The battle belongs to the Lord! That is what we have to
remember, it is not about you or me, but about His goodness, His glory, His
purpose in our lives. I know I sound like a broken record sometimes, maybe I am
the only one who is not getting it?
God wants us to know that He is in control, He is in charge.
After all we gave Him that job when we accepted Him into our lives. When we
made Him our Lord and King we gave Him authority over all our battles. We made
Him our ‘Commander in Chief’!
Another battle story I like is Gideon’s story. He listened
to God as He prepared him for battle by reducing what Gideon thought he would
need to win. God sometimes will reduce what we think we need in order to
prepare us for a battle. What we have to remember is that God is in control.
See, broken record, but it is so true!
When you are weary and full of fear,
Call on the Lord, for He is near.
When you are faithless and wondering why?
Call on the Lord, He’ll hear your cry!
When you are wounded, and full of tears,
Call on the Lord, He always hears.
When you are lonely and in the dark,
He’ll turn the light on,
with a spark!
When you’re defeated, feeling the end is come…
Just call on Jesus… the Battle is already won!
Dear Heavenly Father, Help us to remember that as we go
through daily battles, You alone are in charge. Help us to follow your
directions and do as You would do, not as we would like to do. Help us to trust
you in all that we do, in Jesus name. Amen
Suggested
Readings for this week;
Monday:
Romans 10-1-21
Tuesday:
Deuteronomy 20:1-14
Wednesday:
Revelations 3:1-13
Thursday:
Psalm 35-all
Friday:
Psalm 22-all
Weekend readings: Read 1 Timothy 5-6 this
weekend..
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know what the problem was, that we might go over it together and seek the truth
in love.
In His love,
Teresa M. Wilson
www.teresawilson.com
Copyright © 2005
by Teresa M. Wilson.
Rom 8:24-25
For we
were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one
still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we
eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
NKJV