The Fight is Fixed

Have you ever noticed the fascination a child has with many of the things that we so often take for granted? Every color is fascinating, every object and every sound. One of the first steps that is typically taken to help children relate and define their environment, is to teach them how to identify different shapes and sizes.  That being said, I would ask you to reach into your own imaginary bag of shapes and pull out the circle.  This circle is going to be representative of life, the experiences of life, the successes, the failures, the gains, the losses, the ups and the downs.  It is thereby understood that everyone has a unique circle.  In so many ways, your story is significantly different from mine. However, despite all of the things that distinguish your circle from mine, there are still a number of experiences that we all have in common.  This is the place where our circles intersect. David recognized this intersection, and in the 34^th Psalm, he does not single himself out in isolation with the words, “many are my afflictions.”  Instead he proclaims, “many are the afflictions of the righteous.” There is a shared space, a common ground in the experiences of our lives and indeed one of the things we find in this shared space is struggle.

What is your struggle? 

Perhaps your struggle is in multiple areas of your life, and each area demands more of your time, more of your energy, more of your resources.  There is however good news. There is a shelf-life for your struggle. Indeed, your struggle has an expiration date.  Isn’t it good news to know that trouble doesn’t last always? In the midst of your struggles, you can take comfort in the fact that, God is your refuge, God is your strength, God is your peace, God is your provision, God is with you. This is an assurance that must exceed how you feel. If you are not careful, desperation will move in and make itself comfortable in the midst of your discomfort. The danger of desperation is that it never shows up alone. Desperation always runs in a posse. You may have noticed that in posse of desperation you’ll also find fear, that will have you focusing more on the mountain in front of you than the mountain mover inside of you.  Also in the posse of desperation you’ll find hopelessness; that will keep you on the sidelines of your purpose when all the while, you should have been in the game. It is for this reason that the manner in which the believer responds to desperation is critical.  I know the world will tell you that desperate times call for desperate measures. Though that sounds good on the surface, what that often amounts to is reaching for anything and everything that promises relief.  The result is that at the end of the day, you’ve poured all your time, poured all your money, and invested all your emotion into a bucket that could hold no water.  This leaves you even more thirsty, more broken, more confused, and more desperate than you were before. Why settle for a bucket when you can have the well? When your seeking relief from a desperate situation, you can’t turn to the world, you must turn to the word. The 46^th Psalm presents to us one of the most desperate portrayals of human experience.   It also provides us with a number of key considerations for how we should respond to the desperate seasons of our lives. 

Position

One of the most fundamental characteristics of God is that He is a God of order and in the grand scheme of things He must be first. Regardless how chaotic things may be in your life, you are out of order anytime you position trials in front of truth. As desperate of a situation as the Psalmist paints for us here, he does not put his desperation in front of his God.  He does not open up the 46^th Psalm by addressing what’s going on around him.  He does not begin by addressing his world being turned upside down.  He doesn’t open by addressing his fears, his enemies, or his wars.  Instead he opens by telling us about his God; “God is our refuge and strength”.  He does not ignore or dismiss his reality, he just positions his relationship in front of his reality.  When you have a personal relationship with the Lord, all things are working for your good. God does His best work in your life, when you untie His hands and remove your own. If I ask my three-year-old son to help me lift a heavy table, though his hands may be on the table, I am carrying the lion share of the load. This is why Jesus says my yoke is easy and my burden is light; because He desires to carry the lion share of your load.  This is why you’re so exhausted, so frustrated, so overwhelmed. Isn’t it time that you give it to Jesus; cast every care, cast every worry, cast every fear? Untie His hands and watch Him work.

Provision

To understand the nature of God is to understand the nature of the refuge that he provides.  There’s nothing wimpy or weak about God.  He is the Omnipotent or all-powerful God.  Every power in heaven and earth is subject to his power. It is at His very name that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. To see God as your refuge is to recognize the absolute safety and security that you have when abiding in Him. We are not pushing aside the threat of your desperation; we are just recognizing it for what it is; a threat that only has as much power as you give it; a threat that can only get the best of you, if you step outside of the refuge.  God does not necessarily remove the threat. Rather, He shields you from the full impact of it.  He places a boundary line between you and your threat.  Your threat recognizes and respects the authority of your refuge.  This is why failure was never intended to be an option for the believer.  As long as you are abiding in the refuge,  the only way for you to fail is for the name of the God who is covering you to fail as well. It is not by mistake that the Psalmist repeats that the, “God of Jacob is our refuge.”  For it is in this statement that He is calling to your attention the fact that the God we serve is the covenant keeping God.  To enter into relationship with God is to enter into covenant with God; a covenant that is signed by his own name. The same name that destroys every yoke and breaks every chain. The same name that opens blind eyes and unstops deaf ears. The same name that heals every disease and makes demons tremble.  Take a moment and put the name of Jesus in your atmosphere.

Presence

The Psalmist mentions God as being a very present help in trouble. As I meditated on this, and interesting flashback from high school came across my mind.  Do you remember school fights?  This was one of the central sources of foolish entertainment in high school.  When someone got into a fight at school, there was one thing that person never had to worry about; there would always be an audience.  People would flock around both to witness and to cheer on a good thrashing.  If you happened to be one of the participants in the altercation, often you would have noticed something interesting, all of these people were present for your struggle, but seldom would anyone get into the struggle to help you.  In other words their presence was seen, but not felt.  So, the outcome of your struggle rested solely on your ability or inability to handle your opponent.  So it’s significant here that the Psalmist recognizes God as not only present, but very present.  That’s what God wants to be in your life; very present.  You don’t have to go it alone. That’s why Paul proclaims, “Now thanks be unto God who always causes us to triumph.”   The odds are always in your favor.  Now if you sitting there thinking, “that’s not fair,” then, “you’re absolutely right.”  No difficulty that you have to face as a believer is intended to be a fair fight, its intended to be a fixed fight.  You have the confidence that anything you have to go into,  you are always coming out on top. You may be troubled on every side, but you are not distressed.  You may be perplexed but you are not in despair, You may be cast down, but you are not destroyed.  You may have battle wounds. You may have some scars. It may look like you are going down, for the last time.  Sound familiar?  Sounds a whole lot like Jesus, for even though they beat His back until it looked like a plowed field. Even though they spit on Him and punched him in the face. Even though they put a crossbar on his back believed to be over 100lbs and made him carry it uphill a distance of over 300 yards. Even though he experienced unimaginable pain as they nailed him through the median nerve in his wrist and the intermetatarsal space in his feet. Even though he hung on the cross for three hours such that, every time he took a breath, the open wounds of his back rubbed against the splintered wood of the cross until he proclaimed “it is finished.”  Through all of that, the enemy was still outnumbered.  Through all of that, the threat that the enemy posed to Jesus was one of limited power and impact.  Through it all, it was a fixed fight because in three days, he got up. And the same Jesus that got up, is the same Jesus that’s living in you.  The same Jesus that’s keeping you. The same Jesus that calms all your fears. The same Jesus the dries all your tears. The same Jesus that’s providing for and protecting you.  Do you know him? Do you love him? Do you thank him?  Whatever you are facing now, or lies ahead of you.  Take comfort in the assurance that with Jesus. It’s a fixed fight.