Newsletter/Article Index :   Life in Christ

Date Posted	October 11, 2007
Article Title	Overcoming Life's Battles
Posted By	Greg Richardson
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Overcoming Life's Battles Psalms 31:9-16 (NASB) Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; My eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow And my years with sighing; My strength has failed because of my iniquity, And my body has wasted away. Because of all my adversaries, I have become a reproach, Especially to my neighbors, And an object of dread to my acquaintances; Those who see me in the street flee from me. I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many, Terror is on every side; While they took counsel together against me, They schemed to take away my life. But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD, I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. Make Your face to shine upon Your servant; Save me in Your lovingkindness. John 12:12-26 (NASB) On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him. So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.” Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip came* and told* Andrew; Andrew and Philip came* and told* Jesus. And Jesus answered* them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. There was a young man, Dirk who was sent into battle. He fought with vigor and fortitude. His hands were as strong as steel and his back as sturdy as a horse, and his heart was cold to the core. In the midst of battle he encountered an enemy that was fierce and tenacious. This enemy was larger than life itself, he towered above all who were on the battlefield, and his voice echoed fear into the hearts of his opponents. With every swing of his sword came death and destruction. The young man Dirk after seeing this formidable opponent was stricken with fear and terror, for up to this point Dirk had never lost in battle. He had won every skirmish no matter the size and no matter the opponent. Today however, he faced an opponent that would surely destroy him; Dirk knew that if he engaged this giant he would lose not only the battle but also his life. Daily we face many battles in our lives, and often our fear of these problems causes us to give in to the seemingly hopeless situation or we walk away from the problem and ignore the whole situation. All too often this is my greatest sin…the sin of not engaging the problems in life. But the Bible says in James 1:12 (NASB) 12Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. The problem is not reading this promise from scripture and believing it; the problem is overcoming the fear of battling an opponent that appears to be as the young soldier Dirk faced on the battlefield; a giant that will surely destroy us. Today we are to learn how our Lord and King Jesus, is here to fight with us, and to fight for us, and will defeat life's biggest foes. Our scripture starts with people of Jerusalem that appear loving in every way, verse 12 starts, "On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast." Here we have normal people, just like us, who have come to party and to enjoy the fruits of life, and they, like being strong of heart, walking into life expecting good things to happen to us, not expecting any pitfalls. In order to have a life that is fulfilling and without fear, we must look at all situations and believe in our hearts that what the situation or circumstances or opportunity… we are about to encounter something that is good. A positive outlook helps us physically and spiritually. When we know our outcome is guaranteed we feel safe and have a sense of security that cannot be shaken. But all of us know the truth, that no person can ever give us a guaranteed outcome, not the government, not our husbands, not our wives, not our bosses, and not our customers. No one can give us a guarantee for all of time, and for this reason Jesus died so that we can have assurance that heaven, the destination of hope, is predetermined and written on our hearts. Our scripture goes on to say: when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” They honored him and praised him because they believed that Jesus would lead them to victory over the Roman government, for the nation of Israel were not their own nation, they were under control of the Romans, and they wanted to be free. They wanted their Messiah to lead them to victory, and why shouldn't they expect victory, for Jesus just had raised Lazarus from the dead; who could oppose anyone that raises the dead? But they, like us, expected someone to defeat the enemy of our body and flesh, but Jesus came to defeat the enemy of our soul. Satan is the enemy of our soul, for he knows that he can convince us to put the concerns of life first, and discard our concern for our eternal soul. King David said it best in Psalms 13:2-4 (NASB) How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? David lost his desire to put his soul first, and it came when the enemy attacked his flesh, and he asked, How long will my enemy be exalted over me? We are like David, we get angry with God, and we tell God do something about these hardships in our life, and there are many hardships in life. When you examine these hardships in life from the outside it looks like a war. Our enemy attacks, we become distraught, we lose hope, and we get hurt and die. We can see the causalities of this war, we see the people that are hurt. Look around and you can see the obvious casualties of this war, drug addicts, prostitutes, robbers, murders, aborted babies, the abused, each of them falling into a pit of destruction. When we become the victim of this war, we can become angry and often, like David, we can also lose hope. King David lost his hope when he said, Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, And my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken. David rightly recognizes that the enemy wins when we lose our hope. Jesus pleads and cries with a sorrow in Matthew 10:28 (NASB) “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. He pleads with us that these problems that we experience in life are not what we are to focus on; these hardships and sorrows are the results of this war for our soul. But as scripture in John 12:14 and 15 says, Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” The people of Jerusalem recognized that this Jesus is the victor; for Jesus is the lover of our soul, Jesus will rescue us from the pit of destruction and raise us up to be sons of God. David waited upon the Lord and he said in Psalms 40:1-5a (NASB) I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear And will trust in the LORD. How blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood. Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. Jesus, this lover of our soul, went into battle as he entered Jerusalem, he knew he faced destruction and death. He saw the enemy, and he knew that his flesh would surely suffer. Jesus knew he would be scorned, and ridiculed in the face of the enemy. However Jesus said to the people as he led the battle for our soul, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him." Did you hear that battle cry, Jesus entered into a battle right there at the gates of Jerusalem. There were hordes of demons, and principalities pressing in trying to kill the Son of God, but he led the charge on the back of a donkey's colt, he calmly strode into battle knowing fully well that his flesh would die. Jesus entered into battle for you, and he says follow me, I can protect you, not always against the problems of life, but I can save your soul. Look at your life, has it not been a battle, are you not hurt by the circumstances of life? He invites us today to go boldly into battle knowing that we will lose our life. Jesus tells us that we must die to our problems; we must surrender the struggles in life to Jesus, for he is the only one that can lead the battle through the demonic hordes that threaten our journey into eternal life. He tells us not to fear the problems in our life, do not fear the problems that we face, for Jesus has gone into battle ahead of us. Jesus exclaims, “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul. This is an assurance that nothing can prevail over God; nothing can defeat him. Not the hordes of demons, not the armies of the world, nothing can take your soul, and Jesus entered into battle and died to protect your soul from death. Dirk stood on the battlefield, facing an enemy that could surely destroy him. Fear gripped his heart; he stood there frozen not able to move. But much to his amazement from the flank a shining white rider on a white stallion charged forward to meet this giant enemy of the flesh. Dirk stood in amazement as the mighty white warrior attacked this giant. He stood in awe, as God who became flesh and rode a stallion, came to his rescue and killed this giant with a single word…and that word is Jesus. We are in a war, and when in war there are casualties. Each one of us has become a casualty, we have been hurt not only by the enemy of soul, sometimes we are hurt by our friends and family. Because of these battle scars we become reluctant to charge forth into the battle of life. But Jesus says do not fear, do not lose hope, for I am coming again, and I have defeated the enemy of your soul. Jesus sits atop the white stallion leading the charge, leading us to eternal life. Psalms 143:9-12 (NASB) Deliver me, O LORD, from my enemies; I take refuge in You. Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground. For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble. And in Your lovingkindness, cut off my enemies And destroy all those who afflict my soul, For I am Your servant. AMEN
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