Faith is a fight

Towards the end of Paul’s ministry, he wrote this:

1 Timothy 6:12 (NIV) Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

In the NLT it says “Hold tightly to the eternal life…” You might say “I received eternal life when I received Christ as my Savior” – and you are correct. John 10:10 in the Amplified describes this zoe life as “in abundance, to the full, till it overflows”. Have we actively laid hold on abundance and victory? Do we stake our spot in faith, or just drift along? Do we take full advantage of what has been given to us? Will we fight for it when challenged?

Kenneth Hagin wrote “A good fight is a fight that you win”. Many Christians are passive about their faith, and have attitudes like “If I don’t bother the devil, he won’t bother me”. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Instead, we wind up as “target practice” – we’re an easy mark for when the demons get tired of dealing with believers that stake their claim.

Look at Job. He lived such a good life that God bragged on him. The enemy asked permission to attack him because of his goodness – not because Job was messing up his evil plans. And God allowed it! Graham Cooke put it this way: “God will allow in his wisdom what He could easily prevent with his power” (I will develop this further another time). God believes that what He has put inside Job – and us – is able to make us victorious. Job came through his trials. We can too, with the right attitude of faith.

God made us more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). Have you decided to be one?

(See my Recent Reading page for some suggested material).

Doug