Take courage knowing you’ve got Jesus in your corner. The fight you’re fighting will not last forever – one day it’ll be finished, and every battle you’ve won against sin will bring honor and glory to your Savior. It’s what fighting the good fight is all about.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, fighting the good fight with you.
And it is a good fight, isn’t it? From beginning to end, life in Christ is a daily battle. Every day, it’s a fight to stay satisfied in God. Every day, you’ve got to fight for the joy that is yours in the Holy Spirit [yes, it’s a gift, it’s a fruit of trusting in God, but you’ve got to enter into that gift; you’ve got to apprehend it, receive it, and embrace it even though everything in you screams that your circumstances are anything but joyful]. In short, every day we are fighting the good fight. And nowhere is that fight more evident than when we fight off temptation, than when we say no to sin. It’s a fight to be holy as God is holy.
Kevin DeYoung says in his book, The Hole in Our Holiness, “The Bible is realistic about holiness. Don’t think that all this glorious talk in Romans 6 about dying to sin and living to God means there is no struggle once you give your life to Christ. Dying to sin and living to God does not mean that sin will never show up in your life. The Christian life entails obedience. And obedience implies that you’ve said no to something sinful or self-centered, and yes to something righteous and God-honoring. In short, the Christian life involves a fight. But it’s a fight that is good, and it is a fight that we are assured of winning [I love that].
So, when I am faced with temptation, when I feel my desires pulling me in a wrong direction; a lazy or selfish or stubborn direction, I borrow an analogy from Kevin DeYoung. I picture myself in a boxing ring. In the other corner is the world; other times it’s the flesh, often it’s the devil in that corner. The world, the flesh and the devil: the three heavyweights that you and I are constantly battling against every day. So, when I'm facing temptation, I like to picture who is with me in my corner.
Why, I’ve got the Spirit of Christ in my corner; rubbing my shoulders, holding the bucket, putting his arm around me and whispering in my ear before the next round with sin, “Come on, Joni, you’re going to knock him out, kid. I’ve seen you land punches like this before. I’ve been training you for such a time as this, and I know that with God's help, you can do it. So go in there and knock ‘em out.”
I mean isn’t that a great picture? And I encourage you to borrow it the next time you go up against the world, or the flesh or the devil – picture who is in your corner. Picture the Holy Spirit encouraging you on, reminding you that you are more than a conqueror. Why, you’ve got Jesus, the heavyweight champion of the entire universe on your side. So get in there and fight the good fight knowing that you’re on the winning side. Now it’s true that sin may get in some good jabs. It may clean your clock once in a while. It may even bring you to your knees. But if you are in Christ, sin will never knock you out. In Christ, you are never defeated; you are never down for the count. That’s because you are no longer a slave to sin, you are free, so start acting like it! Sin has no dominion over you. It can’t. It won’t. A new king sits on your throne. You serve a different master. You salute a different Lord.
So, please, friend, today do not tire today of fighting the good fight. Take courage knowing who you’ve got in your corner. And take courage knowing that the fight will not last forever – one day it’ll be finished, and every battle you’ve won against sin will bring honor and glory to your Savior. It’s what fighting the good fight is all about.
© Joni and Friends