Still Standing

If there is something that I take comfort in in the Christian life, it is that Christians are never completely down. We are never out of the picture, the enemy may think he has finished us, but we always get back up. I have the image of a boxing match where we are fighting with the enemy, and he hits us with many blows so that we are on the ground and the referee begins his countdown but just as the countdown is about to end, we stand back up. We live our lives in seasons and some seasons are more difficult and challenging than others but the beauty in all these is that God is still with us, He fights for us, He has completed the fight and guess what? He won! What we are doing in that moment, is simply “play” fight or going through the motion. It might not look like a play to us, but it is, because the victory is set, we are winners. I love what Paul said to the Corinthians church regarding the treasure in jars of clay we carry in Christ that show that the surpassing power allowing us to stand belongs to God. He said: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10). As followers of Christ, we carry his aroma around the world, and in this dark world, that aroma is not always welcomed, hence the battle we go through. But we can take heart that he who has overcome the world is coming back for us. So today, if you are going through any battle, let this post encourage you to stand your ground because victory is yours!

I do not know that other religions emphasize fighting as much as Christianity does. Indeed, when one comes to Christ, he or she is immediately confronted with the reality of being in a battle in this world, a spiritual battle, that is. As Ephesians reminds us: “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). Before coming to Christ, we did not know we were slaves to sin; we did not know our good deeds were like filthy rags before the LORD simply because we were tainted with sin from our conception. We did not know our condition was so wretched and profoundly against a holy God. Paul tells us that the law of God came to reveal the depth of our depravity, the magnitude of our sinful nature (Romans 7:7) but this was so that we would realize that we could not save ourselves and turn to the saviour that is Jesus Christ. Indeed, Jesus came into this world to save us from our wretchedness, he saw that we were powerless, and he came to our rescue willingly. He saw that we were like sheep without shepherd, and he decided to be our shepherd. He saw that we were people who did not know their left from their right and he became our light. This is the mercy of God at play. We were shown mercy although we did not deserve any of this mercy. You see, being powerless does not mean we were good people, quite the contrary, in fact. Our actions were sinful, they were filled with malice, greed, murder, lies, sexual immorality, idolatry, basically, anything that goes against a holy God. Sadly, these things were natural to us. We never questioned our ability to lie, we never questioned our predisposition to deceive, we never questioned our love for injustice and the like. Yet the moment we came to Christ, the moment we received the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross on our behalf as an act of salvation, our eyes were open to our sinful state. We started seeing sin for what it truly is, we started changing and we noticed this tension between our body and our flesh. As Paul explained it well: “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Romans 7:21-23). This tension is resolved by Christ Jesus who has set us free from the dominion of sin and is teaching us to serve God with our mind because serving our flesh leads to destruction. The flesh pushes us to think inwardly, looking to ourselves for salvation in whatever shape and form, it entices us to be our own masters, to always be the ones finding solutions to any problem we might face, the flesh tells us as that we are the solutions. However, the life of the Spirit teaches us to rely in Christ for everything because he has already done everything. He has secured our victory; he has taken his place at the right hand of God and will be coming back as judge of the earth; he has given us justice and righteousness so we can no longer fight to get it; he has given us his Spirit that guides us, makes him shine in us and points us to the Father. Because Christ has done it all, we can simply receive. Sadly, even this act of receiving is too difficult for some of us. We refuse to accept Christ because we do not want to owe him anything, we refuse the ways of God because we want to have control (that is the flesh), we refuse Christ because we think we know better and so we toil and toil and toil and find no relief when all the while the Master is calling us to trust and obey him. Being a Christian is most rewarding because I am not told to find solutions or fix things in my own power. I am told to follow the one who holds all things together (Colossians 1:17). I am told to trust the one who has conquered over sin and death. I am told to look to him, the author and perfector of my faith.

Therefore, remember that whatever struggle you are going through today, you are victorious. Do not fight with your own strength but lean on Christ, the victory on which you stand. Simply continue to trust in him and go through the motion. It might look hard, you will want to give up but by all means, stand. Paul tells us to “put on the full armour of God so that when the evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand” (italics mine, Ephesians 6:13). Falling down and not getting up is not our portion, it is not the portion of the righteous. We are meant to stand back up, we are meant to not give up. We are imitators of Christ and the great cloud of witnesses is before us. They all stood tall, no one gave up, not one. When all looked hopeless they trusted, they looked to God who strengthened them and gave them spiritual eyes to see the promise that our physical eyes can’t see. So don’t give up. As I am writing this, I have wanted to give up repeatedly but this knowledge of the victory I have in Christ is keeping me going and just like that, day by day, the LORD strengthens, He does what Isaiah said He would do: “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak” (Isaiah 40:29). The battle belongs to the Lord so don’t weary yourself, instead remain in Christ. In him, we bear fruit; in him, we have rest; in him, we are powerful; in him, we have life. May the Holy Spirit reveal to you the reality of the victory you have in Christ so that you will continue to push through until the end. Stand your ground mighty warrior.