Resistance

West Point cadets as plebes [freshmen] are required to take boxing. I’m a runner, not a fighter. Give me a race to run or a soccer field to compete, and I’ll be thrilled. Put me in a ring with someone who is graded to punch my lights out, and I could think of a million other places I’d rather be. Boxing was painful, and I was no Golden Gloves boxer. Oswald Chambers taught that “Life without war is impossible either in nature or in grace. The basis of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual life is antagonism. This is the open fact of life.”[1]  I’m guessing he must have competed in a boxing ring.

​Meditation
Revelation 2:7—“Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give the victor the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in God’s paradise.”
 
One cannot be a victor without overcoming something. Resistance is a fact of life. As followers of Jesus, we need to understand how important this is. Some believers mistakenly believe that after they place their faith in Jesus, they are on God’s team, and suddenly, everything improves and stays better.  But that is not so.
           
Jesus foretold, “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world” (John 16:33). His disciple, Peter, wrote:
So those who suffer according to God’s will should, while doing what is good, entrust themselves to a faithful Creator . . . Resist him [Satan] and be firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world . . . Now the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will personally restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little (1 Peter 4:19,5:9,10).
Paul taught, “This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand” (Ephesians 6:13).
           
hat Oswald Chambers called “The Law of Antagonism” is the reality that we had better understand that resistance is a necessary reality of life on earth.  What makes resistance tolerable is faith. We believe that one day, we will overcome and be liberated from this planet of pain through the victory Christ has already gained over sin and death. In the meantime, resist, persist, and be courageous. The victory is not all that far away.
 
Inspiration
“A dead thing goes with the stream, but only a living thing goes against it.”—G.K. Chesterton
 
©2023 Daniel York ARR.  Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  To receive these devotionals, go to www.firstcause.org and click the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed, subject to the inclusion of this copyright notice.     
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)


[1] Chamber, O. (1935). My utmost for his highest. Dodd, Mead & Company.