Gloria Copeland - Fight on!

"Im tired of fighting! As soon as I whip one problem, there are a hundred more knocking at my door!"

Some years ago a friend of mine said those very words to the Lord. At the time, she was weary from the battles of life and ministry. She was fatigued from the constant pressure of pushing back the powers of darkness in her own life and in the lives of those around her. I'll never forget the Lord's response to her as she voiced her frustration.

What is an army for, if not to fight? He said. Youll either be fighting or retreating from now until Jesus returns!

Those words come as a shock to many Christians. They don't want to be warriors. They want a comfortable, easy life. They want to lie back, take it easy and go on a spiritual vacation. But that's not what we as believers are called to do.

We're called to "Fight the good fight of faith" (1 Timothy 6:12). We are an army and we are at war, "not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12).

God has given us spiritual weapons that are "...mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds" (2 Corinthians 10:4). He has given us His own armor (see Ephesians 6:10-18). In other words, He has equipped us to be spiritual soldiers in the army of the Lord.

Victorious Words From a Victorious Soldier

Now, in every army there are good soldiers and sloppy soldiers. There are soldiers who win battles and conquer enemy territory, and there are soldiers who fail and lose ground. I want to be a good soldier for the Lord, don't you? I want to drive the devil back and advance the kingdom of God.

The Apostle Paul was that kind of soldier. He was a man of victory. He triumphed in every circumstance. The devil tried to stop him again and again with persecutions, beatings and trouble of every kind. But Paul kept right on marching in victory, preaching the gospel, healing the sick, working miracles and building the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Eventually, Paul was put in prison and in chains. Imagine how terrible the conditions in prison must have been in those days! No doubt, the devil expected that to stop Paulbut it didn't. Instead of lying down and feeling sorry for himself, Paul used his time in prison to write most of the New Testament. Prison didn't even slow him down.

Just look at the victorious words Paul wrote when his life on this earth was through:

The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

Aren't those wonderful words? I want to be able to say words like that when I come to the end of my earthly life. I want to know that I have fought the good fightand won!

Someone might say, "Well, Gloria, that was the Apostle Paul! He was special. We can't all be like him."

Why not? We have the same Savior Paul had. We're filled with the same Holy Spirit. We even have the words he wrote to Timothy, his precious son in the faith, just before he departed this life instructions that Paul knew would enable Timothy to be a victorious soldier of the Cross just as he had been.

Endure Hardness

What were those instructions? You can find one of them in 2 Timothy 2:3.

There Paul says, "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

Notice Paul didn't say, "If hard times come, endure them." He simply said, "Endure hardness."

There are no "ifs" about it. Hard times are going to come in the life of every believer. There will be times when circumstances will seem dark, times when you face seemingly impossible obstacles, times when defeat seems inevitable.

Some Christians get confused when those times come. "What's happening here?" they cry. "I thought Jesus redeemed me from the curse!"

He did, but you can rest assured, Satan will challenge that redemption. He will try his best to steal it from you by pulling you off your walk of faith. Jesus warned us about that in the parable of the sower. He said:

The sower soweth the word. And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the words sake, immediately they are offended (Mark 4:14-17).

Satan will not sit idly by while you sail through life, effortlessly believing the Word of God. He'll pressure you with hard times. He'll attack you with sickness or lack, then he'll lie to you and tell you that God doesn't care. He'll try to convince you that God is not going to answer your prayer this time. He'll attempt to talk you into believing there's no way out and you're going to end up a miserable failure.

When those hard times come, don't cave in to the pressure. Don't give up. Stand on the Word of God and endure hardness like a good soldier.

Soldiers will put up with far more discomfort than civilians. Have you ever noticed that? A soldier in boot camp will jump out of bed before dawn every morning to run and do push-ups. He may not like it, but he'll do it because his commanding officer has ordered him to do it. He endures the discomfort because he knows it's an inescapable part of military life.

A civilian, on the other hand, might start an exercise program but when the going gets tough, his muscles feel sore and his schedule gets busy, he'll just quit exercising. If someone asks him about it, he might just shrug and say, "I tried exercise, but it didn't work for me."

Some Christians are like that. They hear the Word of faith and they think, Well, I'll try that. Then when the hard times come, they give up.

But that's not how it should be. After all, we're not civilians! We're soldiers! We don't try faith, we make it our lifestyle. We walk by faith whether it's hard or easy. We don't do it so we'll be blessed. We do it because we're determined to be pleasing to Jesus. He is our commander in chief, and the Bible says "without faith it is impossible to please him!" (Hebrews 11:6).

Of course, we will end up blessed if we'll walk by faith. We'll end up healed and delivered and prospering in every area of life because God promised we would. That, however, is not our motivation. We're motivated by our desire to serve the Lord. That's what makes us believe His Word, stand fast and endure when the hard times come.

Beware of Trivial Pursuits

As soldiers, we must also realize it's not just the hard times that are dangerous. It's the good times too. Sometimes the pleasures and seemingly harmless distractions of this world can draw us away from the plans and purposes of God just as surely as persecutions and afflictions. They can hinder us in the day of battle. That's why Paul said,

"No soldier when in service gets entangled in the enterprises of [civilian] life; his aim is to satisfy and please the one who enlisted him" (2 Timothy 2:4, The Amplified Bible).

In the years I've lived by faith, I've noticed that it's easy to get entangled in the affairs of this life. In fact, it sometimes seems like this world is like an octopus always trying to grab you with its tentacles. If you don't watch out, it will wrap itself around you until you're completely caught up in the mundane, trivial things of this world.

If you let them, those trivial pursuits will hold you down and keep you from soaring on into the eternal things of God. They will choke out the Word that has been planted in your heart and leave you without faith and without power.