Fight Like God

Do your feelings control you? How much are you ruling your thoughts and feelings and how much are they ruling you? Are you tired of fighting your way?

Ephesians 4 says WHEN you get angry do not let the sun go down on your anger. Notice it says “when” and not “if”. We all experience anger at different times in our lives. The feeling of anger is not a sin, it’s what we do with that anger that can become a sin. You don’t want to repress it or express it wrongly. We need to control ourselves. We need to teach our children rightly about anger. Don’t make them think that every time they get angry that they are doing something wrong but teach them to control their anger. If we don’t want to raise angry children then we cannot be angry parents. If they are living in a house full of anger they will pick up those habits.

How do you fight like a Christian when someone mistreats you? Proverbs 15:18 says “a hot tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger appeases contention.” Proverbs 16:32 says “he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, he who rules his own spirit than he takes a city.” There are many angry people in the world today. So many have become cynical, negative, critical and bitter. A lot of angry people are depressed. Some have are angry because they have so many unresolved issues in their life. I was one of those people. I lived angry for the first 30 years of my life because of things that happened to me in my childhood. So many people today grow up in dysfunction. They grow up in broken homes, many without a father and/or mother, without the love and validation of a parent. So many feel cheated out of their childhood because of a problem within their family. The world teaches us to fight that injustice by becoming harsh and hard...”nobody is going to push me around or tell me what to do.”  Many Christians are living like this today. They are fighting these injustices their way and not God’s way. We must mature and grow up in Christ. We can’t continue to live by our flesh and by the way we “feel”. Hebrews 12:l5 says we should watch out for one another lest any root of bitterness and resentment get in amongst us. We should be helping each other. When someone is telling you their sad story about how angry they are encourage them to let it go and give it to God. Tell them what a waste of time and energy it is to hold that anger. Say “I understand why you feel that way and why you’re mad but can we pray together and turn it over to God? God can vindicate it much better than you can. God is angry that happened to you too but He knows how to fight it the right way.” We must learn how to fight like a Christian.

In Mark 3:2 we see that the Pharisees really annoyed Jesus. They made Him angry but it was a righteous anger. They were watching to see if Jesus would heal on the Sabbath so they could bring a charge against Him. These people made him mad. Instead of turning away from his assignment from God and getting into an argument with them and trying to convince them they were wrong He healed the man. The only way to fight like a Christian is to fight evil with good. When you help others you are sowing a seed for your own breakthrough. From the beginning of time we have been in a battle.  It started in the garden and it’s never stopped. It’s escalating today and we as His lights of the world must press in like never before. We must fight like God fights and that is not to return evil for evil. You don’t return anger for anger. When someone does you wrong you go out and help someone out. When you learn how to fight like this you will win every battle!

We need to learn to exercise controlled anger. Sometimes when you are being mistreated you must confront the person. When you feel led by the Holy Spirit to do this ask for God’s perfect timing and approach them in a calm way... not in a rant and rage. Sometimes the less you say the greater the impact. Too many words usually results in nobody remembering anything. The proper response to being mistreated is to pray, to bless and do good to overcome evil. It’s a secret that the devil cannot understand.  Only a believer in Jesus Christ can understand this. And only a believer can fight God’s way because it is Christ IN you that gives you the strength to do it. I know this is irritating to your flesh because you feel justified in your anger, but fighting your way will NOT result in victory for you. You may not get instantaneous results  but you will have the victory in the end. The trust is that sometimes you have to do what is right a long time before you get a right result. The only time we grow spiritually is when we do what’s right when we don’t feel like doing it. We must have a lifestyle of giving our cares to God. Are you ready to fight God’s way?

There is always going to be people in the world that annoy you. God uses them to pull things out of us. If it’s in you it’s gonna sneak out. Romans 12:17-21 says “Repay no one for evil, but take thought for what is honest and proper and noble in the sight of everyone. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave the way for God’s wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is Mine. I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him,; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by doing so you will heap burning coals upon his head. Do let let yourself be overcome by evil, but overcome (master) evil with good.”  Psalm 37:3 says “Trust (lean I , rely on, and be confident) in the Lord and do good: so shall you dwell in the land and feed surely in His faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed.”

THIS is HOW to fight like a Christian. When an evildoer does wrong don’t fret yourself but instead TRUST God and DO good. The devil has no ammo against this. If every time he attacks you you go out and bless someone else why bother? Psalm 37:5 says “Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in Him and He will bring it to pass.”  The first thing to do when someone hurts you is to talk to God and say “God this hurts and I’m angry about it but I know that my anger won’t solve the problem or change the person so I trust you and I’m going to keep doing good and commit my way to you. I know you will vindicate it and bring to pass what I could never do on my own.”  Psalm 37:8 tells us when we let our anger control us and try and right our wrongs it leads to evil doing. You cannot fight anger with anger. The ONLY way to overcome evil is with good. God does not stop being good because the world is full of evil.

We are in a war and God’s people are His army. It is a war not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities and wickedness in high places. We are His soldiers. In 1 Timothy 6:12 Paul tells Timothy he is to fight the good fight of faith. So when you’re being attacked one of the ways to fight is to stay in faith by saying “God no matter what is going on in my life I trust you.” When you have a problem instead of getting all wrought up about it and upset open your mouth and say “God I trust you to work this out for my good.” When someone abuses you, mistreats you, ignores you, when someone gets the promotion you deserve anger is not the way to solve the problem. Of course your first response is going to be anger. Instead of getting yourself into a rage say out loud “Lord thank you for giving me the fruit of self control and with your grace and mercy I’m going to calm down. God I trust you. You are my refuge.” Now follow up it up by saying “God I am fighting your way so now show me someone I can bless.”

When someone comes to you finding fault with another person, especially with someone you have loved and admired you need to come back with positive comments. Understand that it is a demonic trap. Offense comes from a Greek word called “skandalon” which means the bait on a trap that lures an animal into that trap for destruction. When the devil stirs up strife trying to get us offended he is baiting us. Offense and strife are the bait of Satan to lure us into a life that has no power and victory. It is designed by Satan to prevent us from fulfilling God’s call on our life. We can’t finish our race and win our battles if we’re angry. We can’t help how we feel but we can choose to do what’s right no matter how we feel.  In order to grow spiritually we have to do things we don’t FEEL like doing. To get a bigger muscle we have to lift a heavier weight. We have to stop being afraid of hard things and backing down from the fight.  We need to stop praying for all of our opposition to go away. Paul never prayed for all of people’s problems to go away. He prayed for them to endure whatever came against them with good temper. He prayed for then to have self control and discipline. He prayed for them to act the same no matter what was going on in their lives. This is a big challenge for us as we just love to tell people how we feel. Yes we need to be in touch with our feelings but we need to deny them the right to control us. We need to stop feeding them and they will stop having power over us.  We all have feelings but we need to learn how not to act on those feelings if they go against the word of God. We all have free will and we can make a choice. Self control is a fruit of the spirit that is given to us so we can control our emotions.  We need to learn to take our thoughts captive before they become a stronghold in our mind. We must learn to resist the enemy at his onset when the enemy first begins to tempt you. We can’t flirt with sin. When you feel yourself getting angry you have to nip it in the bud. 

Anger not controlled is poison to your soul. Ephesians 4:26-27 says when you get angry sin not. Never let your anger last until the sun goes down. God has a better way for us to fight. He wants us to fight like a Christian! He wants to give us the victory!  Instead of letting our emotions control us and spewing negative words out of our mouths we can ask God to help us. We have an option. Thank God we don’t have to take care of ourselves. My friend, today you can retire from self care! Give Christ the wheel!  He is a much better driver.

Aren’t you tired of trying to make people pay for what they did to you or what they didn’t give you? Let it go and give it to God. Then ask Him who you can bless. This is how to fight God’s way.  It gives you the power.  It ensures your peace and your victory.  

God Bless You,

In Christ,  Sherry :-)

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