The Fight!

2 Corinthians 10:3 in the King James Version tells us “for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.”  The God’s Word translation comments on our humanness, but then declares “but we don’t fight like humans.”  It would seem that although we live in this world, we are being told that in order to be a successful Christian in it, we are to fight with different tactics than the world prescribes to.

So how then, do we fight the battles that we regularly face?  Well, the answer is found a couple of verses later in 2 Corinthians 10:5.  Here Paul explains that we are to “take every thought captive so that it is obedient to Christ.” (God’s Word ©)  S. Way makes the declaration that “I (or we) can make each rebel purpose my (our) prisoner-of-war, and bow it into submission to Messiah.”  I think J.B. Phillips’ paraphrase “The New Testament in Modern English” defines it even better by stating “We even fight to capture every thought UNTIL it acknowledges the authority of Christ.”

In plain English, the author is telling us that it takes diligence and effort to stay with it until the negative thought is removed and/or taken into submission to the authority of Christ and His Word.  Just like a Pastor I once worked with told me about the ministry saying that “Ministry is spelled W-O-R-K!”  The same could be said about our walk of faith!  It takes perseverance and W-O-R-K!  I came across a plaque of my wife’s that one of her students had given her back in the early days of our marriage when she taught at a Christian Pre-School.  It simply says: “Faith makes things possible… not easy!”

There is a lot of truth and a lot of power behind that elementary statement!  The thought that popped into my mind as I was meditating on this subject this morning was that “Perseverance pays!”  Anytime a negative thought that goes against the truth of God and His Word flashes across your mind, take the time to STOP its progress within you by counteracting it with scriptures that tell God’s side of the story in the battle that you are in the midst of!  And keep pouring on God’s truth until you make that other thought bow its head in submission to God’s point of view!  The negative reasoning will starve from lack of attention or nourishment when you refuse to even consider it.

I had the opportunity to practice this lesson just a few nights ago as I prepared dinner for my wife and I.  As I puttered around the kitchen, I took a moment to go over and kneel down in front of my wife who I had wheeled into the kitchen area so she could watch what I was doing.  I looked deep into her eyes and said a few funny but endearing things and waited for the response… that never came.  On that particular night she had a faraway look in her eyes and they were void of the sparkle that always encouraged and drew me to her.  So, I gave her a little peck on the cheek and returned to the kitchen counter.

When I looked up from the counter my eyes fell upon a picture of the two of us that I had taped to the kitchen cabinets. It was a shot of us embracing in our backyard from the late 1990’s.  At the time the picture was taken, I was preparing for an upcoming wedding shoot that I had.  I was planning on using my older Canon F-1 as my secondary camera but had to make some adjustments as the light meter was off by a few stops.  So this roll of film was a test roll to see how I needed to change the automatic settings.  There was really nothing special about the picture as my wife was dressed in her normal mid-summer outfit of blue jeans and a cotton long sleeve shirt over a T-shirt that probably advertised one of the State Parks that we liked to camp at.  I had on another vacation purchased T-shirt and my customary shorts!

The photo was slightly under-exposed so it really accentuated my wife’s freckles.  I guess the thing that got to me though, was that she was holding me with a big smile on her face.  When I looked at the picture that night, I gave into a flood of emotions that were bottled up inside of me and gasped aloud: “God, I miss you!”  I think what I miss the most with the fight we are fighting for my wife’s health as we stand against the effects of Alzheimer’s, is her touch and regular reassurances to me.  Other people can encourage me and even give me a hug, but NOTHING compares to her embrace.  My whole world could be going up in smoke but one word and her close embrace would instantly bring peace and comfort beyond words!

After I uttered those words, my mind was suddenly filled with all kinds of disparaging thoughts of what it would be like without her.  But once again, I am so thankful for the Word that we have been pouring into our hearts over the last few years.  I instantly saw the folly of my ways and IMMEDIATELY began to replace the thoughts that were contrary to the Word of healing that we are standing on.  I breathed in deeply, put down the knife I was using and went over to the table where my Bible was and began to fight back with the Word of God!  And within a few minutes the smoke from the attack had cleared and even my wife began to smile at the emotional and spiritual change that had taken place in our hearts as well as in our kitchen!

When I went back to the chopping block and looked again at the photo, I could only smile knowing that we will experience many more opportunities to embrace and share a healthy, holy and profitable for-the-kingdom-of-God life together again!

Now that’s the “good fight of faith” (I Timothy 6:12) that we are told to fight, and we do it by taking the time to “capture every thought UNTIL it acknowledges the authority of Christ.”  Remember in the midst of this fight, that the biblical definition of faith explains how “Faith assures us of (the) things we expect and convinces us of the existence of things we cannot (yet) see.”  The key is that we WILL eventually see the thing that we are expecting, if its based on the truth and faithfulness of God’s Word.  All we have to do to keep that hope strong is to keep God’s final word on the subject ever-present before us!

Have a strong-in-the-Lord day today!  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”