The Greater The Challenge...

The Greater The Challenge, The Sweeter The Victory

This past week I worked on getting back to my routine of going to the gym early each morning after taking a couple weeks off. This week was more a mental battle than a physical one. When I awaken I have the option of getting up or falling back to sleep, it's a simple choice with potentially huge benefits or losses. Having won this battle, waking up, the moment I actually get to the gym there's another battle awaiting me. One day last week I hadn't been in the cardio room very long until I was mentally fighting whether I was going to go the whole 30 minutes or not, whether I'd increase the resistance and challenge myself or not. Simple, but difficult. Once we pass one trial, there's always another to awaiting us to conquer...and such is life.

While I consider all the parallels of this example to those of life, I can't help but think of the comparison to our spiritual walk.

Each day we're faced with the choice to awaken and get moving, or be lulled right back to sleep. We have the choice to face the challenge before us and get stronger, or just walk away and get weaker. Our challenge each day is to press forward, push past the pain, fight for every inch and every breath; or we could give in, give up, let our current desire win the battle thus leaving us momentarily satiated, yet ultimately vulnerable and empty. Seems like such a simple choice, yet it's tough isn't it?

After a hard fight, a difficult workout, a real struggle I feel renewed and confident to face harder challenges. In my workouts I go for more weight, more resistance, increasingly difficult exercises to push myself harder. I see the gains, I know firsthand the benefits, I delight in the challenge. But, what about life itself?

Some may say, "My life is hard enough! No more!" But to that I say, where's the growth without resistance? Here's a very large difference in the analogy and our lives: we don't HAVE to increase the resistance in life, that will naturally come. We can choose to take the easy road, every day, always taking the path of least resistance but even that brings its own troubles. The fact is, most of the time, whether we choose it or not, adversity will hit us and it will sometimes knock us off our feet. This is just part of living - regardless of our decision to live godly or not. However, when we consciously choose the more difficult path of being a Christian and make the decision to stick with it no matter what comes (Matt.7:13-14) the struggles will then be a natural part of that decision and they will constantly come. Yes, the struggles will ebb and flow like the waves of the ocean; sometimes fierce, other times smooth, but struggles we will surely have. We must train ourselves to fight through the pain, realize that having passed one obstacle doesn't give us the liberty to cease. If anything, it should alert us of our need to keep aware of the next one to come and keep within our hearts the desire to fight the next battle with even more resolve as the last victory. When we gain ground by winning a daily battle, we can't let ourselves grow laxed, we must fight harder to gain more ground. Seek more victory, face the lion, defeat satan (1Cor.15:54-58;1Pet.5:8-9; Jms.4:7). The greater the challenge, the sweeter the victory.

Or, have we become so weak in our day that the idea of a challenge makes us cringe, causes us to tuck our tails and run? Are we so feeble-minded that the very notion of a struggle makes us whimper and lose heart? Whatever is of value takes hard work to attain. We know this in earthly things, why not in the spiritual? Have we so quickly forgotten the accounts of the Old Testament?! How often did God defeat vast numbers with just a few?! Let us take a moment to let the following sink in: We serve the same God as they! We, too, shall conquer! Read Romans 8 if you have lost heart or need a reminder of whom we serve.

Fight the battles. Be up to the challenges ahead of you. Face the resistance that is sure to come. Gain a stronger faith by overcoming sin and temptation. Live by the spirit rather than the flesh.

"The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Matthew 26:41

God gives us the power to overcome. On the battlefield of life, whose side are you on? Don't let the world hold you down and keep you from heaven. The challenges will be fierce, but the victory will be beyond compare. Choose life, choose the Lord.