Ours to Join, God’s to Win
Have you ever had a moment when reading your Bible when the chapter for that day struck you so hard that you knew it was God speaking? I had such a moment last week Friday.
That morning, I was caught up in an intense prayer battle, and I suspected it was the enemy attacking my joy and identity in Christ. I opened my Bible to Psalms 25, and verses 1-21 jumped out to me. It’s a longer passage, but I encourage you to read the whole thing, slowly.
“ 1 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies exult over me.
3 Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;
they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
…
15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged;
bring me out of my distresses.
18 Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.
Consider how many are my foes,
and with what violent hatred they hate me.
20 Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!
Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
21 May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
for I wait for you.
(Psalm 25:1-3, 15-21)
I almost brushed off the message in this Psalm and its connection to my prayer time as a coincidence. We do that often, don’t we? Discount that a word is God speaking, and assuming when messages align, it is happenstance?
Despite my doubts, God has this fun habit of confirming what He is teaching me. I had read this Psalm in conjunction with Psalms 26 and 27 (their content is for another blog post), and not a day later, a seemingly random podcast I listened to with my husband mentioned what I had read- but not only that, the podcaster talked about the same psalm in context with spiritual warfare. Now just try to convince me that was pure coincidence!
I needed that confirmation from God (Isn’t it amazing how well He knows us?). I was caught up in the internal battle- but I was trying to fight it alone. I doubted that God was on my side. But in His faithfulness, God reminded me through the Psalms and a podcast that He is fighting the battle for my heart.
Again, verse 15 from our psalm:
“My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.”
Who will pluck my feet from the net? Not me. I can’t get my own feet out. He will. I can only turn my gaze towards Him, and He will rescue me. The nature of these small internal battles reflects the Great Victory we have in Jesus: we are broken and polluted by sin, so much so that we could never redeem ourselves. God Himself, Jesus Christ, was the only one perfect, holy, and powerful enough to save us and purify us (Ephesians 2:4-6, Romans 5:6-10). The only action I can take is to decline or accept His gift of salvation and the opportunity it gives me to have an intimate relationship with Him.
That Friday morning in my living room on my knees, I couldn’t win the spiritual battle going on. And that’s just it- I will never be able to win the battle alone. God has invited me to join Him in the war in the unseen spiritual realm. I am part of the fight, but the victory is His.
I am brought again to a scripture that has proven to be a kind of life motto for me, Exodus 14:14: “The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” In context, this verse is even more powerful. You are likely familiar with the event of God calling Moses to lead the Israelites out of their Egyptian enslavement, but here’s my summarization of the narrative from Exodus:
After pleading with Pharoah again and again, the Israelites were finally freed from their oppression in Egypt. But characteristic of an evil tyrant, Pharoah didn’t hold to his word, and after releasing the Israelites, sent his army after them to recapture them.
In their flight, the people of Israel had come to the banks of the Red Sea (for scope, if you took Lake Michigan and turned it horizontally, it would be about the same width as the Red Sea, but for overall size, you could fit each of the Great Lakes in the Red Sea twice). The people of God were now sandwiched between a sea thousands of feet deep and an army set on their destruction.
Instead of trusting God to sustain them, the Israelites fell into fear, telling Moses it would’ve been better that they had stayed slaves rather than be in this impossible situation. Despite the people’s lack of faith, God was working, and He gave Moses these words to speak to His people:
“And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
God then had Moses stretch out his hand, and the sea before them split into two walls of water, the sea bed a dry path before them, where the people of Israel were able to cross safely. When each Israelite had made it through, with the Egyptian army hot on their tails, God let the waters of the sea fall back into their place, crushing the Egyptians.
In this moment, God didn’t need the Israelites to be mighty or fearless. He didn’t even need them to have a plan. He only needed their full commitment to Him, to accept His invitation to join Him in the battle and watch Him win the victory.
God has shown His strength through His followers again in again: Gideon (Judges 6:11-8:28). Esther (Esther 2:8-8:17). Mary, Jesus’ mother (Luke 1:5-38). Matthew. Paul. Rahab. Not one of these people was what one might expect an All-Powerful, Mighty God to use to do His will. But He did use them. Every one of them was used do to mighty things for God’s kingdom, in spite (if not because) of their weaknesses.
We know God is the same today as He always has been (Numbers 23:19, Psalm 33:11, Hebrews 13:8). If this is true, and if God could use as fearful a man as Gideon to conquer an entire army with only 300 men, or a societal pariah like Rahab to allow two Israelite spies to safely scope out an enemy land (and save her own family by her faith), why don’t we believe He can use us? Why do we doubt that He will use us to conquer darkness, and fight for His kingdom?
We know the spiritual forces of evil are real, but so are the spiritual forces of Truth and Good. Our God is real, and He is alive and engaged.
The battle you face right now, whether it is a clear attack in the unseen or seemingly unrelated chaos in the seen, God fights for you- and He is inviting you to join Him. Stand strong, and let the truth and promises in God’s Word give you courage:
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” – 2 Corinthians 10:3
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” – Ephesians 6:10-12