The Fight of Your Life

“[F]aith will fight anything that gets between it and Christ. The distinguishing mark of saving faith is not perfection. The mark of faith is not that I never sin . . . The mark of faith is that I fight. I fight anything that dims my sight of Jesus as my glorious Savior. I fight anything that diminishes the fullness of the lordship of Jesus in my life. I fight anything that threatens to replace Jesus as the supreme Treasure of my life. Anything that stands between me and receiving Jesus faith fights – not with fists or knives or guns or bombs, but with the truth of Christ.” - John Piper

Do you have a survivor's instinct? If you are like a lot of people, you probably don't know because you have never been tested. For the most part, we lead pretty safe lives. Some of us might live a little more dangerously than others, but we typically don't go through our days fearing for our lives.

Perhaps you wrestled or boxed or you have been in a fight with a bully. But consider trying to fight off something or someone that has every intention of killing you? If you have never faced something like that, it's difficult to imagine because we aren't used to our lives being threatened in this country.
Maybe you've been rock climbing and you know what it's like to hang off a cliff 40+ feet in the air. But what if you had no rope or harness? It's no longer just a sport, it's a do-or-die situation.

As long as there are rules, safety measures, referees, etc., it's just a challenge. But once your life is put on the line everything changes . . . you are in a fight to the death. There are no rules; there are no style points; there is no second place; there is no such thing as fighting fair or fighting dirty. Adrenaline and panic set in as you go into survival mode. Your Fight-or-Flight response is preparing you fight harder, run faster, or hold tighter than you ever thought you could . . . because if you don't, you're dead.

What if you didn't realize the danger? What if your Fight-or-Flight mechanism never got a chance to kick in? That's where the phrase, "Like a lamb to the slaughter," comes from. Everyday, your faith, your spiritual life, is threatened and you probably don't even know it!
If God is the air that your faith needs to breathe, then Satan is the assassin holding you under water to drown you. He will do anything he can to keep you cut off from your life support. As long as Satan can keep you separated from God, you are not a threat to him because your faith will be dead.

If you don't fight, if you don't resist, your faith will shrivel up and die. Are you going to just lie there and let Satan suffocate you? Or are you going to kick, bite, scratch, and scream out to God for help? I encourage you today to choose to fight! Fight against temptation, laziness, deception, and anything else that separates you from the love and grace of God. Read His Word everyday so that you will be equipped with His truth and pray for God's Holy Spirit to empower you to do what is right. And never give up! Never stop fighting!