Natural hope, an expectation of good born outside the Word of God, is woefully insufficient for the monumental challenges that confront your life. Such hope will dissipate and eventually give up on you. That is why God went ahead of us to provide the scriptures, so that as we ponder on that which is written, we will learn and embrace patience and comfort; this will result in hope produced by the Word of God. Romans 15:4 declares, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” Your hope shouldn’t be based on projections, trends, analysis or expert advice. It should be primarily founded and built on the infallible Word of God. God has given us the scriptures so that when your circumstances don’t make sense but it makes scripture, you will have hope. On the back of this, I would like to present to you critical realities that should fuel you to fight for what God has committed to your trust.
1 Timothy 6:12 KJV
Fight the good fight of faith…
Faith is a Fight
If you would learn from scripture, no one waltzed his or her way into the promises of God concerning their lives without a fight. There are Red seas to cross, and there are giants to conquer in every Promised Land. Faith is not just a doctrine, it’s a fight. Jesus said, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” This means without a fight, your portion of the kingdom will be encroached. The forceful will push despite resistance till he or she makes progress; it will be a struggle, but you will definitely cover grounds. Faith is not a ride, it’s a fight. It’s a fight for space and territory. Every word of prophesy is an arranged fight. The good news is that the fight of faith is a fight from a position of victory. Fight for your space!
Mark 4:3-8 KJV
Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.
The character of a victor
The sower’s only resource in the scripture above is his seed. His occupation was to sow for a living. He was doing business, investing, reaching out and doing his work. If you had the opportunity to meet this sower, it is likely you would have met him diligently sowing. In fact, he so sowed his seeds to the extent that he was called by his occupation, a sower. He sowed seeds that fell by the way side and were stolen. He made investments that yielded no profit. He had invested 75 percent of his resources with no returns. One might easily judge this sower to be lazy since at this point, he had nothing to show for his labour. After investing 75 percent of your resources, would you be willing to stake the remaining 25? Would you have considered an alternative occupation even though you were convinced it is your field of calling? Yet regardless of these contrary predicaments, the sower had enough endurance in him to continue sowing. After much persistence, he sowed his last resource and it brought forth thirty, sixty and an hundredfold yield.
When you discover who you are in Christ and what he has called you to do, you can’t afford to give up. God is interested in shaping your character. When success becomes a character, no situation will wear you out. Your faith will surely be tested. There will be seasons where you will question whether your call to a specific field, space or industry is authentic. It is in such times that you can lean on the comfort of the scriptures in order to fight for your space, knowing that the fight for your space is the fight of faith and a fight from victory.
Be encouraged!
Rule and subdue the earth!