“Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6:12 NLT).
Has your faith ever been pushed to the limit? Have you ever walked through something that caused you to doubt the strength of your faith? Have you ever felt like you were in a fight and didn’t know if you were going to make it another round? Welcome to the Faith Fight.Times are tough but God is tougher. No matter what your fight or how impossible the situation, God is always bigger and more powerful than what is happening to you. You can trust Him to help. “I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory” (1 Peter 1:6-7 MSG).
God will give you victory if you just keep trusting Him. You can be calm in the midst of adversity, you can have peace in the midst of chaos, and clear thoughts instead of confusion. You can be victorious, energetic, and joyful in Christ. Remember: God loves you, He is faithful, He never loses or fails, and He never changes.
You may be thinking that you do not have enough faith to win the fight, but let me tell you, you have all the faith that you need. He has given everyone of us a measure of faith. “The apostles came up and said to the Master, “Give us more faith.” But the Master said, “You don’t need more faith. There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith. If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘Go jump in the lake,’ and it would do it” (Luke 17:5-6 MSG). Let me ask you, who has more faith? Is it someone like Elijah who challenged 450 false prophets and called down fire from heaven or a toddler who pulls to his feet and takes his first steps to his daddy? Neither has more than the other. Each used as much faith as was necessary for the task at hand.
Even when times are tough and you don’t see the way out, you still have all the faith you need. The problem is that negative thinking and unbelief begin to wear on your faith. Satan will tempt you to give up on God and take control for yourself, to self-medicate by excessive eating or sleeping, through infirmity or through an invitation to walk on the wild side, to withdraw from society, or even through religious service. But it is important that you keep standing because it is your faith that enables you to trust God and live victoriously in this life.
The enemy wants you to quit trusting God and quit using your faith, to just tap out, but you need to start checking your Bible instead of checking your Facebook. Faith comes by hearing and you have to be careful what you are listening to. Now is the time to use your faith and wait for God’s solution.
STRONG FAITH
The faith fight teaches you to take your eyes off yourself and put them on God. He has already won the victory and that’s where your focus belongs. It is a fixed fight. It is not easy when everything seems to be against you. The temptation is to give up and doubt God‘s word. This is when you may feel like asking, “Why is God letting me go through this?”
Let me give you a few reasons why your faith is on trial:
- BECAUSE OF THE CROSS
“In this way, [Jesus] disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross” (Colossians 2:15 NLT). You see, the enemy lost his power and authority at the cross but he does not admit it. God gave you the victory at the cross.This does not mean that you are not going to have any problems in life, but it does mean that your problems are conquerable because of that victory. Through His death, Jesus conquered sin and sickness and defeated Satan. That same power that raised Christ from the dead belongs to every child of God and by accepting Jesus as your Savior, you accept His victory and place yourself under His protection. Learning to walk in Christ's victory is a vital part of your spiritual growth.
- BECAUSE YOU ARE DOING WHAT IS RIGHT
Satan gets angry when he sees you obeying God’s word, trusting God, praying, working at the church, tithing and giving, helping the poor and trusting God. He gets so mad that he determines to make you doubt God, so he sends trials against you. You have to decide that you’re going to stand in faith and be unmoved by the trial. The secret is in deciding to follow God no matter what.
- BECAUSE SATAN ACCUSES THOSE WHO WALK UPRIGHTLY
God does not tempt, test or try man with evil. “Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer” (James 1:13-15 MSG).
Jesus told us we will have trials. A trial is when Satan uses pressure and temptation to get people to stop serving God with all their heart, mind and soul. Satan doesn’t really care what you do. He just hates you and wants you to stop trusting God. He wants to defeat you, to get you to walk in the flesh instead of by the Spirit. Remember, “For God has said, ‘I will never fail you. I will never abandon you’” (Hebrews 13:5 NLT).
- BECAUSE GOD IS TESTING YOUR FAITH
God does not test us with sin but He does test us to see if we will be obedient to His will. God tests us to be doers of His Word and not hearers only. He may test your heart to see whether it is fixed on Him. Genesis 22:1-13, “Abraham passed this test of obedience because his heart was not afraid to trust God… His heart was fixed upon God‘s love and faithfulness to him.” In Malachi 3, God said “prove me”. Trust me with the tithe and I will supply your needs. Trust me to be your God and to take care of you. It is not a money test, it is a trust test. Isaiah 1:19, “If you are willing and obedient you will eat the good of the land.”
We have been talking about strengthening our faith, Faith depends on the Word of God for its strength. The more of the Word that is added to your faith, the stronger it becomes and you have the power of an expert warrior. Nothing is impossible with faith and patience. Having done all, stand. You have the victory.
