C.S. Lewis wrote, “Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. ”
Because of the influence of my sisters, I now mentally make Lord of the Rings analogies to life…and I’ve noticed I’ve been doing this more recently. To me, this and other stories like it give a picture of a time when people lived fully, loved deeply, and fought fiercely. And I believe that we are in a similar place today: a place where we need to allow ourselves to be fully present to those in our lives.
And there comes a time even now when we must fight. Sometimes it’s for ourselves and sometimes it’s for others. We fight for our families, we fight for our friends, we fight for our churches. This is not in the physical, it is in the spiritual, but it doesn’t make it any less important.
We fight to choose life every day.
We fight in worship.
We fight in prayer.
We fight in faith.
There is an account in the book of Exodus when the Israelites are fighting a battle, and their leader, Moses, is standing at the top of the hill. Whenever he lifts his hands up, they are winning, but when he lowers them, the enemy begins winning. Moses is very old at this time, and his hands grow tired. Two of the leaders have to hold up Moses’ hands on either side, and the victory is won.
Our prayers matter. In this, we are lending our strengths to others and speaking life over them. We are reminding them and ourselves of the truth of God’s Word and speaking it into our reality on earth. This does not mean that we let our hearts get hard; but we are willing to step out in courage–to step up and fight. We do this because our hearts are tender, we care about people, and we are willing to fight for them in prayer (and action, too). These are not scared prayers; these are declaring God’s Word over people and situations, and reminding our own hearts that God is bigger than anything we might face.
We do not fight as if we do not know who will win the battle. We fight because we know that our God is on our side, and he is victorious. He does not slumber or sleep, but will keep our hearts and lives safe–hidden in him. In the physical, this may or may not work out like we want. But we know that we can trust our God and press hard into Him no matter what.
This post was written by Heather Dillard. To read more about her, click here.
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