Fighting to Win ! Right Battles/Right Enemy/Right Weapons
How Did They Manage To Pull It Off?
Carol and I have a good friend whose grandson plays for the Kansas City Chiefs. Carol is not a football fan, or she wasn’t until we started watching the Chiefs and looking for our friend’s grandson. The Chiefs have won 14 and lost only 1 game this season. I heard one of the sport’s casters enthusiastically say, “The Chiefs have so many weapons and can score in so many different ways!” If you saw or heard folks talk about the end of last season and the Super Bowl LIV, you may recall how the Chiefs came back time and time again to win. How Did They Manage to Pull It Off?
That made me think about winning as a Christian in relationships, in personal struggles, in ministry, and in life overall. We have “weapons” too. They are mighty weapons, but they aren’t linemen, tight ends, running backs, receivers, and quarterbacks. They aren’t weapons like guns, knives, and clubs either. These weapons are useful to win the battles that life consistently draws us into or throws at us.
Your war may be keeping your thoughts straight and your emotions in check.
Your war may be controlling your words or your anger.
Your war may be having a quiet, controlled response versus angrily lashing out.
Your war may be anxiety, fear, or worry.
Your war may be with your spouse, a family member, a former friend, a boss, an employee, a neighbor, or a long-term enemy, even The Enemy of our souls.
I am telling you, there are weapons you can acquire, sharpen, and engage in your personal struggles that will eventually, sometimes immediately, bring a victory into your Win column. These weapons come to us as gifts from God when we receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5) (2 Peter 1:3)
Do you pray? How do you pray? How often do you pray? Do you know that you can use prayer as a weapon against the forces arrayed against you?
Do you read, study, memorize God’s Word? Did you know that praying God’s Word strategically can help you memorize it and deploy it in the battles you face? Do you pray with others, for others, alone, for yourself, for the closest people in your life, out loud, in private?
Do you meditate and simply think longer than a second or two about Jesus and His love and life? Did you know that you can encounter Jesus by asking for Him to draw near as you draw near to Him in quiet times. Reading or quoting God’s Word can help you get there in meditation and prayer to God?
In the next few weeks, I will be writing about how to Win and how to react to a Loss so you can Win again and again. (Proverbs 24:16)
Here is the first story. I will keep it short since this is already longer than usual for a 52-Week Plan installment.
The young man whose story I am relating was about 19 years old, a relatively new Christian, and losing the battle with pornography and lust. He lost most battles to the point he came close to giving in and giving up. However, one day after multiple failures in the days prior to this one, he desperately prayed to ask God what he should do. He was listening this time because he recognized how much help he really needed from God. It wasn’t coming from anywhere else at that stage of his life.
In this prayer for help, God spoke to his heart and asked, “How many thoughts can you think at one time?” His answer was a question: “One?” God’s response through the Holy Spirit who lives inside us as believers and inside this young man was simply, “If you are thinking what is right, then how can you think what’s wrong?”
Another question/answer from our friend in the story, “So what’s right?” God’s clear answer, “My Son died on the cross so that you would not have to be a slave to this sin. That is true and right.”
I will finish the story next week and let you know what weapons this young man told me he used to win this war, when he was almost persuaded to quit trying. I will tell you how he managed to “pull off a victory” from the jaws of defeat. That incident was decades ago, and by God’s grace he is still winning the battles. These encounters come around more often than Super Bowls and Play Off Championships, and winning is much more important to life and love.