Fight For Your Faith

Fight for your faith.

I've been thinking a lot about that phrase over the course of several days.  I first heard my pastor use it while addressing those in our church who gathered together for fellowship and to dig deeper in God's word.

Our culture promotes peace... we want peace and we'll often go to great lengths to get it or to maintain the peace in our homes.  We teach our kids to be peaceful and not fight, which is good and right, but I wonder if in the process of teaching; our kids are inferring that their faith isn't something worth fighting for... but fight we must!  It was not a mistake when God inspired Paul to write in Ephesians...

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  (Ephesians 6:10-17, NIV)

I think what God was trying to tell us through the writings of the Apostle Paul is that we can not sit idly by and expect our faith to withstand the wiles of the devil if we aren't fighting.  We can't put our faith on the shelf, we must be in quiet time with God, we must seek the face of God through prayer, and we must memorize and hide God's Word in our heart.  If we aren't prepared for battle before the battle we will have nothing within us in which to fight.

Fight for your faith and teach your kids how to fight for theirs.  Our kids are going to be faced with many battles within the walls of their public school building and they need to be ready to fight the fight for their faith.