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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. – 1 Timothy 6:12.
This text brings out an important truth about the Christian life. Faith is a fight. It is a fight we must fight and God is not going to fight it for us. It is up to us. By winning the fight of faith we lay hold of eternal life. Eternal life is God’s quality of life here and now that endures beyond physical death. If we are going to have God’s quality of life we must know how to fight the fight of faith and fight it well.
The fight of faith happens primarily in our minds. Fiery arrows are shot into our minds every day (Ephesians 6:16). Those fiery arrows are thoughts. The thoughts may be thoughts of doubt, thoughts of condemnation, thoughts of compromise or temptation. We position ourselves to win first of all by becoming aware that we are in the middle of a faith fight. We say to ourselves “I know what is happening right now. I am in a faith fight and it is up to me to do something about these thoughts.”
Second we remind ourselves we do not have to agree with these thoughts no matter how intense or convincing they may sound. We have a choice. We do not have to agree with thoughts of doubt but choose faith in God. We do not have to agree with thoughts of condemnation, but choose to affirm the reality of our righteousness in Christ.
Third we fight by affirming thoughts that are in the opposite spirit of how we are being attacked. If we are being overwhelmed with thoughts of discontentment, we start thanking God for every small thing we can. Eventually if we persist in the opposite direction of the negative thoughts they will cease and we will be at peace.
Faithfully, Pastor Greg
