The Battle

“For the battle is not yours, but God’s.” 2 Chronicles 20

Do you like to battle? Do you like to surrender? Hmmm, most of us would say no to both of those questions. Given the choice between the two, which are you more likely to do?

David Fulkerson spoke recently on this topic at Newstart Community Church. God spoke to me through Dave.

As Christ followers, we often talk about the armor of God and turning over our struggles to God. Scriptures such as Ephesians 6:12 remind us that our battle is not against flesh and blood.

Fulkerson worded this in a slightly different way that hit home for me. He said “Our battle is in surrendering to God.” That is so true.

For years, we’ve heard the phrase “let go and let God.” But even it that, where is the focus? It is on what we are letting go of. We are assuming the object of our battle is the problem in our life. That is not the object of our battle.

In the Ephesians passage we move closer to the truth by acknowledging that the battle is not the physical circumstances. Yet we – or at least I have still pictured the focus of the battle to be the spiritual forces of evil which are behind the circumstances. Note the word “behind.” In other words, I’m still seeing the circumstances as the more evident problem.

Fulkerson’s words reminded me that surrendering to our true object of our battle, brings victory in the physical battle.

None of us wants to surrender to a battle that will result in greater hardship. When I was battling internet addiction, I could have surrendered to my addiction and lost my life. Instead, God told me to look at him. When I truly took my eyes off the circumstance and looked straight at God, it was easy to surrender to him. As I look back, I see that my battle was in surrendering to God.

Ok, let’s take it down to childlike faith. Sometimes my kids get frustrated trying to fix a toy. They cry out of frustration but they won’t let me have the toy in my hands. They won’t even look up. When I offer to help, they respond repeatedly with “I can get it.” Finally, they look up and hand me the toy.

The broken toy was the problem but their stubborn battle was not with the toy. (Toys can only battle in movies.) The battle is with letting someone else fix it for them.

What is your problem today? What do you expect to gain from leading your own battle? Are you willing to surrender to God and be victorious under his leadership? All it takes is turning your focus directly onto God. Having trouble doing that? Pick up a Bible and read until you see him. Once you see him clearly, surrendering will be much easier.