The Lord your God, who is going before you will fight for you. Deuteronomy 1:30
For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory. Deuteronomy 20:4
One of you routs a thousand, because the Lord your God fights for you, just as he promised. Joshua 23:10
Stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you. 2 Chronicles 20:17
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Romans 16:20
Do you see a theme in these verses? If you said the theme is that God fights for us, you’re partly right. Granted, that’s a very important part. We’re all in a battle every single day. Sometimes we can see and hear our enemy. We may be facing ridicule or harassment from someone who doesn’t believe in God and makes it their mission to let you know how ridiculous they think it is to have faith in an unseen God. Perhaps your enemy is within. There may be a smoldering anger, a reluctance to forgive, an impatient spirit. There are many ways in which we fight the enemy of our own flesh. And then of course, there’s the universal enemy, Satan. He’s the one who uses the world and our flesh against us, the ultimate tempter. He wants to see us angry with God, or hopeless, or even slowly drifting away from God. Any of those things would be victories to him. When we realize that we are continually surrounded by enemies, that Satan never sleeps, that there is a non-stop offensive against us, it can be pretty debilitating. What human has the strength and energy to maintain a constant defense for long?
That’s when it can be very comforting to realize that God fights for us. I’m so glad He does! Just thinking of a constant, never-ending battle until we leave this earth is exhausting! I’m so thankful to have a heavenly Father who fights for me. So does that means that I can relax and take it easy? After all, if God’s doing the fighting, I can lay in the proverbial hammock and let Him do all the hard stuff. Right? If you think that’s what these verses are saying, you missed the other theme that runs through them. That theme is that we are still in the battle. The first one says that God will go before us. That indicates that we’re going. But we have a God who enters the fray before we do. The second one says that He goes with us and the third shows us fighting, too. Not only do we have to do all we can to fight our enemy, we need to stand firm. Even the verse in Romans shows our participation. God is the One crushing Satan, but whose feet will Satan be crushed under? It will be ours.
What is the battle you’re fighting? Is it mostly against another person or people? Is it mostly within yourself? Or is it mostly against the attacks of the enemy? Whatever and whomever you’re battling, these verses are both comforting and motivating. I take great comfort in knowing it’s not all up to me. I would feel pretty hopeless about the whole thing if I could only rely on my puny efforts. I’m so thankful to have the all-powerful God of the universe fighting for me. I can’t lose! In fact, He’s already won! But that doesn’t mean I can sit back with a relaxing cup of tea and expect God to take care of everything. Not that He couldn’t. He certainly could. But He invites me to be a part of the battle, to do all I can. What He’s really inviting us to be a part of is the victory celebration. Like I said (actually, He said it), He’s already won. He could leave you and me out of the whole thing. But just think how sweet victory is going to be when we get to heaven! And how exciting it will be to know that we did our part. I know that ours is a very small part compared to what He has done, which makes it all the more amazing that He invites us to join Him in the battle and in the victory. What a great God we serve!