“The successful fighter is not the one who can throw the most punches; it is actually the one who can take the most.”
You have to think about that one a little…
What that statement really speaks to is endurance – the disciplined ability to be able to go toe to toe with an adversary for as long as it takes and in the end to still be standing.
Every follower, not every fan (and there are lots of them) but every follower and every disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ has such an adversary in the devil of whom the Bible states in (1 Peter 5:8) is like a “roaring lion.” Like a lion, Satan prowls, looking for someone to devour – for someone to overcome.
His tactics are varied, he has watched the “game tapes” of your life before you received and trusted in the Lord and he brings the fight to you based on the weaknesses he finds. He cannot take away your salvation or position in Christ but he will fight you, torment you, tempt you and if possible instigate you to respond to this world in a way totally uncharacteristic of Christ and His people.
Think about the last 24 hours – were any of your emotional triggers pulled or fuses lit? Did someone or something frustrate your patience to the boiling point?
How did you do?
Did you retaliate without a second thought? Did you go off like a roman candle on the fourth of July? Or, were you able to bear up under the temptation to react and endure it? Did you take all that Satan threw at you and walk away in the peace of the Lord?
As one who has lost more than a number of bouts with this adversary of ours, I KNOW that the struggle is real and that our default is always to respond in the flesh – as I/we grow in our faith and learn to put God’s word to work in our lives we will begin to establish a NEW default and over time we will win more bouts than we do now.
Listen, James said the the “trying of our faith produces patience” – literally such trying produces an ability in the Lord to endure. The problem for us is that we do not spar in make believe fights with friendly opponents at a gym – every fight is for real. Sometimes we win and sometimes we don’t but the goal is to win more and more and more…
Just as the “successful fighter is not the one who throws the most punches but who takes the most” you and I need to be able to roll and anticipate Satan’s punches through training in the Word of God, by prayer and by obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit within us. Our adversary is going to throw everything he has at those who follow Christ – the believer must endure or bear up under it all. When we do, we will grow stronger still in the Lord and we (2 Tim. 2:4) will “please Him who enlisted us as His soldiers.”
Click the link https://www.thetextmessages.org/sermons/spiritual-endurance-training/ to listen on and learn more about the vital topic of spiritual endurance…
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