Whatever, Flight or Fight?
As a coach, this year has been a difficult one for me. I have had the privilege of coaching my very successful team from last year but it came with a drawback which I became aware of at the very first practice, although which was unnoticeable to the team, and that was complacency. Their stunning victories last year borne from the sweat of hard work was forgotten. They had forgotten how they had become winners last year and believed they could be winners again this year by just showing up. Even when the margins of victory became smaller and even when the odd loss occurred, they wrote it off to anything that wouldn’t confront the idea that they had become lazy, that they had lost the will to train for the fight of victory.
What season are you in or what season have you emerged from recently and how is it forecasting your future? How have your thoughts, actions and faith been impacted?
Could it be that the riverbanks of your circumstances are channelling your life and you have become averse to living a life of faith? Whether it is fear caused by so many losses and setbacks that the only way forward is to abandon your hope of a different future and accept finally that this is all you have been destined for, or maybe your riverbanks have been created by the luxury of success and to embrace another mission would be too risky, challenging the security of the blessing you have?
Men, you have been created as unique, one of a kind masterpieces with a purpose in mind:
Ephesians 2:10 New International Version (NIV)
10 For we are God’s handiwork [masterpiece], created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Satan, our Father’s enemy and therefore our enemy is well aware of your destiny and is nervous that you will fulfil it. Although not all powerful and all knowing, he is still a very influential, deceptive and crafty enemy who has seen through the ages how to manipulate man and persuade him to abandon his destiny in favour of self-sufficiency.
What if this season of hardship is more than just you learning to overcome but rather that God is allowing your enemies to come after you because they are His enemies too and He wants to drown them in the sea [to borrow from the story of Exodus]. Or, as Dutch Sheets says, “So that He can give you their possessions, their land.” He, through you, can release plagues that will defeat the gods of your enemies that they may come to know the one and only real God. Just maybe this battle was allowed by God so that your deliverance will reveal Him as Lord and Saviour.
What if this season of comfort is more than a blessing and a reward from God but rather that God is making you more resourceful for a greater, more influential work? The old testament is filled with examples of men of God who had varying degrees of comfort, and remember their comfort was relative to their context, and by having to obey God they would put their position and status at risk. Often the initial outcome would look very bleak with either jail, a burning furnace, a lion’s den, the gallows or a number of other terrible alternatives being presented just for it to lead to a miracle and a greater opportunity for God to promote Himself through their obedience and faith. To risk what you have for Him positions you for a greater miracle. He shows through your loyalty and faithfulness that He is Lord and Saviour of all.
To discover how to navigate these seasons in your life, to discover the weaponry required to fight for the life God has destined for you join us on a Saturday morning or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.