Gear up for Battle and fight the good fight
This week I started 10 radiation treatments to destroy the tumor ball in my left neck. The distance where I lived to the oncology radiation clinic is 69 miles, approximately one hour and twenty six minutes one way, driving back and forth for ten days, putting 1380 miles on my vehicle. To add to this, I have a separate health issue with my stomach that ramps up with pain in the night hours, throwing another obstacle in front of me.
I tell you this because I truly believe it is a battle with the enemy. The enemy wants to make it as difficult as he can for you to be unsuccessful in your life. Whatever hardships in your life, the devil wants you to be defeated and destroy you.
It’s easy to have self defeating thoughts, and give up, but I encourage you to have faith in God, He will go out before you to fight! The battle is already won, if you have faith and believe in Him, God will see you through the battle.
In the Bible, in the book of Judges, it was a time before kings, A king would bring the people together by providing leadership, law and order and unite the people, Since there were no kings, men did what was right in their own eyes and lived evilly. God raised up judges to be a leader and save His people from destruction.
One of my favorite judges was a woman named Deborah. In the 4th Chapter of Judges, the Israelites did evil in the sight of God and God allowed the Israelites enemies to take them over in captivity for twenty years. The commander of their King Jabin, named Sisera, cruelly oppressed the Israelites, they cried out to the Lord for help. Deborah was a prophetess and the leader in Israel at the time. She held court to settle disputes between the Israelites . She sent for Barak, an Israelite Commander and political figure, to give him a message from the Lord commanding him to lead an army of ten thousand men to lure Sisera, Commander of King Jabin’s army to the Kishon River and give him into Barak’s hands.
Commander Barak told Deborah, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.” “Very well,” Deborah said, “I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman.” (Judges 4:8-9)
Deborah went with Barak and the Israel army to fight Sisera and his army. When the timing was right, Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?” Judges 4:14.
The battle was indeed won. The Lord routed Sisera and his army and his nine hundred chariots by the sword, where Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. The enemy armies were defeated by sword, not one man standing and Sisera was killed when he hid in Jael’s tent, mistakenly believing on the friendly relations between King Jabin and the Kenite clan. “On that day God subdued Jabin, the Canaanite king, before the Israelites. And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin, the Canaanite king, until they destroyed him.” Judges 4:23-24
I tell you this story from the Bible because the problems we have in life sometimes seem insurmountable. God expects you to step up and fight! He will win the war, but God expects you to partner with Him and be willing to do your part by stepping onto the battlefield and fight! Take courage, believe, step out in faith, doing your part, and the battle will belong to the Lord.
The Lord fights my battles! If God is for us who can be against us? We serve a living God.
”All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give all of you into our hands.” 1 Samuel 17:47