1 John 5:4New International Version (NIV)

⁴ for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

This life is full of battles. Threats to our faith are always in front of us. As men, our fight is against the powers of this world that take us away from our faith in God. The good news is we have every weapon we need to use in the fight. When we put on the armor of God, and remember Jesus is our Lord. He goes before us. We will defeat our enemy and come out victorious.

I teach young men that every Friday night. Before the football team I am apart of takes the field of battle, I reassure them if we fight before the Lord and give Him the Glory, we will alway be victorious no matter the final score. 

This past week our football team took to battle on the field and handled the first half, but then in the second half there was a shift in the young men.

It was very hot that night and fatigue was setting in. The opponent began to score, and fighting started to take place between our young men among themselves. There was a mind game beginning to take hold. Thankfully we had scored far enough ahead that the opponents push did not take away our team’s win when the game was over. It was not a good win, though. They knew it. These young men can learn from this. It is not a lost lesson. 

Men, I saw how that this is how life can be. We have battles that come from the enemy. These battles hit our minds. We may not handle situations the best. The hit tells us we fall short, the low blow tells us we are weak, or the down talk tells us we are failures. These can hit our minds and thinking and pull us into petty fighting or down talking.

In Psalms 18:39 it says, ‘For you have girded me with strength for battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me’.

Men, we are fighters. We need to stand against our enemy who comes against us in our minds. Hold the line. Change the mind talk to positive. Be a fighter. God has equipped. Jesus has delivered. The Holy Spirit empowers. Be a fighter.

Strength and Courage

Michael