“Whatever It Takes” Question 5/244

Are you willing to fight for your dream? (You’ll have to!)

    What does my dream boil down to? That God will change me into a perfect being.

    There’s no question that he will (because he promises to), but I will still have to pick up my sword and fight. It astounds me how God can give us free will, yet maintain complete control over our lives. He never says in his word that I should sit and wait for him to make me holy. But he asks me to run towards him. He asks me to fight the good fight. And while I move toward him and he moves toward me, my desires will become more like his, my actions will become more like his, and I will become more and more perfected by the righteousness of Christ. These things cannot and will not happen while I am sitting in a pool of apathy.

I love how my college class teacher at church defined the condition of the church today: “We have a lot of spiritual streakers that run into the battlefield with only the helmet of salvation on. Put some clothes on!”

I must stop trying to be David running out against the three Goliaths (Satan, the world, and my own sinful nature) with only a helmet of salvation (and no slingshot). Jesus promises that temptation will come! It takes more faith to trust God at his word when he says “put on your armor” than the faith it takes to run out blindly into the fray! I must stop being mowed down by Satan’s piercing arrows, sucked in by the world’s sand traps, and hit from behind by my own flesh. I must be actively pursuing holiness. I must be adding on spiritual armor “in increasing measure” (2 Peter 1:8). So back to the original question: Am I willing to fight? My answer is in the form of another question: Am I sitting in apathy or putting on armor?