The Lord Will Fight For You
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· 969 viewsThe Lord will fight for us, but we need to invite Him into our battles, give Him the strategic lead, shut our mouths, & recognize we need Him.
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Every one of us who is living and breathing is going to encounter a battle of some kind at some point.
For some, the last 2.5 years has been an epic battle on many levels
Relationship battles - spouses, children, family, co-workers, coaches, friends, your jerk cat who keeps knocking things off of the counter
Emotional battles
Health Battles
Every battle is real, every battle is personal, and every battle has the potential to be lost or won.
Everyone is fighting some kind of a battle & many, even though they put on a strong front, are unsure if they are going to win THIS battle.
I have good news for you!
The Bible says that The Lord Fights for His People!
If you have given your life to Him, the Lord will Fight For You!
I don’t feel like God is fighting for me.
How can I get God to fight for me and get into the fray with me?
How to Get God Into Your Battles:
How to Get God Into Your Battles:
1. Realize that you need Him.
1. Realize that you need Him.
5 I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.
It’s not just a nice bonus to have Jesus in our life - without Him we are finished before we even start to fight.
Without Jesus, we are in grips of the devil who is the thief, the killer, & the destroyer
12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
2. Invite Jesus Into Your Life and Battle.
2. Invite Jesus Into Your Life and Battle.
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
7 Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in.
Jesus is not going to barge into our life to force us to receive Him as our Savior and Lord.
In the same way,
Jesus is not going to force His way into our battles - we have to open up our life and ask Him to come in.
When we invite Him in, Jesus WILL come into our life & battles.
3. Understand Jesus’ Position in your Battle.
3. Understand Jesus’ Position in your Battle.
2 And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the Name, the Lord of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim.
Jesus is the “Lord of Hosts”, not the errand boy who can fight.
If Jesus is Lord in the battle, we must learn to follow His commands completely and immediately.
I cannot tell you how many people do what King Saul did and have convinced themself that they have followed the commandments of God. (1 Samuel 15:13)
4. Trust Jesus’ strategies for victory.
4. Trust Jesus’ strategies for victory.
7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
It can be much easier to trust what we can see and what we have experience with.
Are we trusting God enough to follow in the unorthodox strategies He will employ?
God fights weird!
God never loses!
Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him - Job 13:15a NKJV
When we don’t trust someone, we won’t do what they say.
-Especially if we don’t understand it or it doesn’t make logical sense to us.
Gideon was told to decimate his already undersized army (Judges 7:2-7)
Joshua was told to walk around the city instead of building seige walls (Joshua 6:3-5)
The Israelites were told to take NOTHING and destroy EVERYTHING (Joshua 7:1)
5. Important winning strategies to be aware of
5. Important winning strategies to be aware of
17 You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”
Let God work!
For some people, the most difficult thing is to just NOT do anything & just let God work.
25 And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.
When we try to help God out, we can defile the process.
ONLY do what He tells you to do. (John 5:19)
14 The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
Focus on holding onto peace - sometimes that means we just need to shut our mouth.
In Hawaiian - Pa’a Ka Waha
In French - Fermé la Bouche
In English - Be Silent, shut the mouth & don’t speak
There are times when we just need to stop talking - period!
Don’t allow your addiction to speaking cancel the miraculous victory of God in the midst of your battle.
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
Jesus comes in & makes us winners!
Jesus comes in & makes us winners!
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
Even when the devil & people mean to do evil to us, God turns it around for a blessing.
The imprisonment, the false accusations, the slavery, the betrayal - none of it felt good and none of it just went away for Joseph - but he recognized that God blessed him & those around him beyond the toughness of the battles
Just One Thing:
Just One Thing:
Invite Jesus into your battles, trust Him in the battle, and do things His way - You will win every battle!
Discussion Questions:
Discussion Questions:
What’s the most anxiety inducing thing you do on a regular basis?
Do you typically formally invite Jesus into your battles? Share a little bit about that, and perhaps share why not if you have not done so.
Please read John 5:19 and share how and if you apply this verse in the midst of your battles. If you don’t tend to apply this verse in your battles, share what you might know is your pattern and reason why you handle things the way you do.
Out of the principles shared about how to get Jesus into your battles & the winning strategies given - which is the easiest & which is the hardest for you currently? Share a little about why.