What Are You Going to Fight For?

A question I’ve been waking up to.

What an exhausting question for the early AM hours, but it’s one of importance. We can often forget that this life is in fact full of the need to fight. We can fall into referencing the importance of armoring up, as if it’s a cute sentiment and not a serious requirement. We don’t end up here on purpose, often times the dark clouds that remind us of our need to fight come at our most vulnerable moments, sprinkling fear and doubt over top of the things that we know to be true.

So what do we do here? Assess and address! We can’t fight the battle we refuse to acknowledge as real.

It took me longer than I’d like to admit to find my answer to this question due to my own battle with acceptance. If we’re not honest with ourselves in the assessment stage, we could end up naming the wrong fight, falling prey to more doubt and fear in the process. If you find yourself tripping over your own roadblocks, add that to the assessment. We’re told that our battle here is not against flesh and blood and that includes ourselves.

You know that saying “you are your own worst enemy” I’m sorry, but I refuse to believe that I’m a worse enemy to myself than a devil whose out to steal, kill and destroy my soul.

The real enemy would love nothing more than for you to be distracted by the wrong fight. When we’re in this position we aren’t properly walking in our faith. The very thing the enemy is after, the thing that if taken, would lead to our ultimate destruction and his greatest pleasure.

I’ve taken time to mourn the moments that my vision wasn’t passing through the lens of faith and my heart became sick with the realization of my own misplaced hope. I may also find along the way, that I need more time. These things don’t disqualify me from the battle.

We are equipped with everything we need to approach the fight before us and temporary moments of cower (although not encouraged) do not eliminate those tools from our bag. But carrying them around won’t do the trick itself, there’s a practicality to all of this. I could give you the layout from my own thought process, but I’d rather just go straight Bible.

The Armor of God

Ephesians 6

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

Prayer

Over the years, I’ve been coming to know a new meaning of “pray always”. Pray even when prayer doesn’t look how it did “yesterday”. This is a huge part of fighting for our faith. If we can be convinced to cut off communication with the Lord, we voluntarily detach ourselves from the source of our joy, strength, peace and hope… the things Jesus died for us to inherit.

It is critical to keep your tongue from speaking out of the brokenness you find along the way. An action I wish I was better at by now. The hopeful reality is that renewal is made available at any moment. the last hour you had doesn’t have to determine the next. We will have moments of showing up to the fight in conditions we don’t prefer, the point is to keep showing up. We’re not getting to other side of the things that try to entangle us without suiting up.

What are you fighting for?