Unshakable: Faith in the Fight

Imagine you are a father taking your young son to the hospital, and the time comes when you have to hand him over to the surgeon responsible for his care. You know you can’t fix the problem, so you have to let him go, surrendering what is most valuable to you and trusting God.

The children of Israel faced faith in a fight too. While they were still slaves in Egypt, God heard their cries and promised to deliver them from their oppressors (Exodus 3:7-8). But even after He led them out of Egypt, they still faced Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea, and God delivered them (Exodus 14:10-14).

And that’s similar to how we approach our faith. Sometimes we divorce faith from the fight, believing that if we have faith, we will somehow be exempt from life’s struggles.

Key Takeaways

Here are four ways to have faith in life’s fights, trusting that God will bring you through.

1. Sometimes faith  requires you to surrender before you go into battle.

If you were to interview a soldier of any war, they would tell you that an act of surrender would not be considered a strategy for overcoming the opposition. And yet, that should be our posture as believers when it comes to trusting God. We have to release our need to control the situation and trust Him with what we cannot fix.

At the Red Sea, Moses told the children of Israel, “Do not be afraid. Stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today” (Exodus 14:13). Sometimes our part in the fight is to stand on what God has already promised and trust Him with the outcome, no matter what it looks like.

2. Life's struggles don't mean that God has abandoned us.

Sometimes when we face major difficulties, we tend to think that God has either forsaken us or that we are not in the place He wants us to be, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes God will take us through a trial so He can display His Glory, even when we are most vulnerable. Oftentimes, God wants to do a greater work in our lives than simply getting us out of a difficult situation. Exodus 14:4 illustrates this point when God told the Israelites where to camp and said that He had planned this in order to display His glory through Pharaoh and his army

3. Remember that the fights you face don't cancel God's promises.

Faith doesn’t mean there will never be a fight. In fact, this mindset shows that we confuse faith with a fantasy that thinks believing in God and His promises means we will never face any type of resistance. But that isn’t true. That’s why we often get discouraged and say to ourselves, “If God gave me a promise, why am I still dealing with trouble?” But the fact is, we must remember as Christ followers that the presence of a fight doesn’t mean that God isn’t present or that His promises are not true. So, no matter what situation you’re facing today, continue to stand. Faith doesn’t mean you won’t have to fight. It means you don’t have to fight alone, knowing that today’s victory becomes tomorrow’s testimony of God’s faithfulness in the battle.

4. Your response to battle reveals your level of trust in God.

It’s human nature to experience fear or anxiety when our faith requires a fight. The Israelites faced this too. When Pharaoh approached the children of Israel with horses and chariots, the Israelites panicked. They looked behind them and saw Pharaoh’s army coming and looked ahead and saw the Red Sea. In fact, they cried out to God, saying, “Why did you bring us out here? We should have stayed in Egypt.” But Moses said something profound in Exodus 14:13. He told them, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.” What a promise!

This week think about how you respond to battles. Do you trust God is with you and His promises are always true, or do start to complain and lose faith. Remember that various fights will always be a part of our faith journey, but we can always trust God to bring us through!

Want to go deeper?

Watch Minister Robert's message, Unshakable: Faith in the Fight on YouTube.

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