GOOD NEWS!!!!
Another week and it is always refreshing to hear good news. How would you feel if you knew you did NOT have to fight that battle you think you have to fight or have been fighting?
Well, you don’t!!!
The long-standing family feud. The ongoing strife with “inconsiderate” neighbours. The never-ending arguments with your spouse. The co-worker or “boss” who you are convinced hates you and makes your life at work a living hell. The months or even years going after that promotion. The ever-present sickness that simply has no “cure”. The depression. The anxiety. The ____________ (you fill in the blank with whatever “battle” you have been fighting).
As a child of God, you DO NOT have to fight those, or any battle on your own.
As young children my sisters and I would walk to and from school. As children are prone to do even to this day, groups of children from different schools would tease and pick fights with each other along the roadway. Well, a particular group was getting a bit aggressive toward my sisters and me and we were scared.
We had an older cousin, Christopher (now deceased) who was tall, big, and strong. He was a sweet, gentle soul but you would not know that just by looking at him.
We told him what was happening and he decided to walk with us to and from school. Guess what? We were NEVER picked on again. NEVER. We did NOT have to fight.
Well none of us has to fight now either. In Romans 8:31 we read “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
I shared in an earlier blog what God told King Jehoshaphat and his people when they faced a numberless army: "Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's.”
When faced with insurmountable troubles, tribulations, and enemies, remember that just what God promised his people then, He promises his people today. Jesus has already won the victory for us and sits at God’s right hand eternally, interceding for us.
Specifically, God gives us two things for our battles - armour, and spiritual weapons. All we are required to do is to trust Him and obey Him.
You see as children of God, while it may seem like it, in Ephesians 6:12 we are told that “... we are NOT fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”
We are therefore given suitable weapons. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, we are told that “we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”
I am currently studying the book of Joshua with my Community Bible Study and this fact that God’s children do not have to fight our battles on our own is being brought home to me very clearly. Time and time again we see God fighting the battles of the Israelites against their enemies who vastly outnumbered them, as they took over the land God promised them. I’ll just share the account found in Joshua chapter 10, which is the most dramatic to me, so far.
“Five Amorite kings— of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon—combined their armies and set out to attack Gibeon. The men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua camped at Gilgal to help them. So Joshua set out from Gilgal with his whole army.
The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them,” “for I have given you victory over them. Not a single one of them will be able to stand up to you.”
Joshua marched all night from Gilgal and took them by total surprise. God threw them into total confusion before Israel who chased them. As they ran from the people of Israel, God pitched huge stones on them out of the sky and more died from the hailstones than the people of Israel killed with the sword.”
That’s not all God did that day. At Joshua’s request, God made the sun to shine in the sky until the Israelites had completely destroyed the combined army. He literally made time stand still.
Ladies, nothing is impossible with our God! Imagine, this is the same God who promises to fight our battles! Isn’t this good news?
It doesn’t mean that we won’t have challenges, trials, and tribulations. It just means that if we choose to trust God instead of fighting in the natural, God will fight our battles for us and we are assured of victory regardless of the “outcome”. (John 16:33), In fact, when the same Israelites disobeyed God and did not put their trust in Him, they lost their battle against the city of Ai. When they repented and obeyed God's commands to make amends, they were able to go against Ai again, and that time, God fought for them and they defeated Ai.
How many of you have an older brother or sister or cousin who stood up for you against bullies in school or elsewhere? God is even bigger and stronger than them, and He is ever-present.
Your Weekend Reset tip
Trust God to fight your battles, and take a break from constant striving.
Sharon Carruthers, the author of the ‘Weekend Reset’ blog is a child of God, wife, mother of 3, a Human Resource Management and Development Consultant, and owner of the firm, ‘Bold Consulting’. She is sharing from her own experiences for women who are holding back, or living on autopilot; who believe their identities are in others and, or in what they do; or who neglect themselves while sacrificially taking care of others. She hopes that together Christian women can embrace the future with the beautiful hope of transformation one step at a time.