Either you wage war on your sin now or Jesus will wage war on it when He returns. This is a war, there is no getting around that fact. We were born into a world which sits on the battlefield between the fallen and the Holy. There is unending accusation from Satan spewing deception at a murky, clogged filter called the mind, which is expected to decipher that which is thrown its way and destroy anything that does not agree with the Word.
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed in the presence of many witnesses.
This violence…this bloodshed is what my life is created to encounter. This is my part in the fray. My job is to know Truth; to know Love and to know Light so that in the moment of deception, when I cannot see past the pressures of the moment, I will be able to stand my ground because of the knowledge of a higher hope: the hope of my calling.
My job is to recognize that the momentary light affliction is truly momentary and is truly light, in respect to the greatness of eternity for which I am suffering. There is so much temptation to wallow in self pity and celebrate the fact that something has caught my attention enough to cure my boredom, however useless and destructive it may be. My duty in this epic battle is to press on toward victory.
Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God.
In the moment of testing I will remember that it is a test and not a picture of my life being discarded by the Father. I will remember that without training, no soldier is put on the front lines. Without repetitions of uphill sprints, no runner gains significant speed in the race. Without hours spent studying, no student makes the grade.
The testing of your faith produces perseverance
The fight of faith requires endurance. To stand your ground as a lifetime of failures, pains, rejections and lies are forced back into your face requires a deep interlaced knowledge of the Truth. There is no other battle in which the enemy knows every piece of weakness in his adversary’s history, but there is hope in the fact that the Truth of God’s Word is a solid rock that will never change. Onto this rock will I fall when my human frame fails to endure against the accusations.
The kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
I will be the violent one who takes the kingdom of Heaven. I will beat my flesh, tame my tongue, bring my body into submission so that my spirit can go up the mountain with clean hands and a pure heart. I will forcefully take that yoke which is easier than any other yoke. I will convince my body that the reward of discomfort in the natural is the fullness of all joy in the spiritual. I will go up the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense, remembering always that beautiful sacrifice on the cross which allowed me to have friendship with the Father.
I will fight, because I know that one day the sky will recede as a scroll being rolled up, and every dark corner of the earth will be filled with light. Every hidden and sinful place will be exposed as the glory of God fills the earth like a raging sea. Jesus will come! With eyes filled with fiery jealousy. Wearing clothes dripping with blood from the battles He has fought in His passion for us. He will have many crowns upon His head, proving that He has conquered the nations.
He was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.
Jesus is the true King. Jesus is the reason that I fight. As He fights for me, I will fight for His kingdom. As He stains His robe and wins crowns, I will join in the sufferings of the cross and deny my flesh, lose this life, in order to find the life which He promises. This momentary light affliction will no longer be a roadblock but will be the catapult that sends me into a fiercer lifestyle of holiness. There is nothing that can stop me from warring. King Jesus is worthy.
