Fighting Against God

 Life is hard enough without us having to fight against the enemy we could never defeat. We all have all kinds of battles with other people. We have to strive against businesses and the government when we can't get them to do the right things. We are susceptible to all kinds of diseases and physical problems that make our lives harder. We don't need to make life harder, but we do. When we fail to obey God, He comes to fight against us, too.

God made a covenant with the Israelites before Joshua died. They had all of His instructions, so they knew what to do to keep the covenant. However, they broke the covenant. (Judges 2:15) After that, every time Israel went out to battle, the Lord fought against them, causing them to be defeated, just as He had warned them. And the people were in great distress. Many believers are living in defeat today for this very reason. We need to learn how to have victory in life.

We all have 3 enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world is constantly trying to draw us away from God, so that we get hooked on the things of this world. Our flesh is being tempted to follow the world and the devil, as they appeal to our human desires and weaknesses. Of course, Satan and His demons are the real enemies, since they want to make us miserable and ineffective for the Lord. None of us can defeat these enemies without God's help by His Holy Spirit. Therefore, we have to have God on our side to live in victory.

All God asks from us is obedience. He knows we are weak. He hasn't commanded us to do anything that we can't do with His help. He will help us, as we decide to obey and surrender to His Spirit to guide us and empower us. However, if we fail to obey God's clear instructions from His Word, He will fight against us to get our attention and call us to repent. When we repent, we decide to start doing the right things with His help. He sees our repentance and our submission to the Spirit. Then, He fights for us, instead of fighting against us, so we have victory.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Judges 3-5.