Life is a fight!!

I have come to realize that nothing in life will ever be easy. You will never wake up and have the life that you have always dreamed of. Everything that you really want in life will take two things:
1. Time 2. Determination
The word tells us in Deut. 30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
You see the Lord is prepping us right here that we hold the choice for our life that a decision has to be made. Life or death. We can pick either neither is ever chosen for us. Sometimes I think people think that once you get ask Jesus into your heart that you have chosen life so now things will all be good. I have found that isn’t so. I have found that choosing life is a daily sometimes hourly decision you have to make.
One of my favorite scriptures of all time is 1Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
You see he is being reminded here to fight the good fight! I love what my Pastor says a good fight is one in which you win. You see we are in this life to be victorious we are in this life to conquer. You are not here to be stepped on, used, kicked aside, & pushed to the back. No you are here to win in this life. You are here to kick down the devil’s door and to make a difference in people’s life. To do that though takes you making a choice. You have to choose what you are going to do……choose life or choose death.
Some of you reading this have a marriage that is on the rocks….Choose life! Fight the good fight! You go in and love that spouse like no tomorrow! You begin to pray for them. You begin to sew those seeds of love that will bring life to your marriage. Whatever you do you don’t give up!!
Some of you reading this have dreams and desires that you haven’t seen come to pass yet! Choose life! Breathe life into those dreams don’t let them die no matter what the situation may be like! You go back in and fight for that dream!
Some of you reading this have people you have been standing believing God for their life the be changed. Don’t give up! Life is a fight, but you are in this to win! You don’t know what a difference you are having in their life. Things you think are small and nothing may be what is keeping them going. Don’t give up!!

You see I have learned this. When you feel like giving up the most. When there is that voice inside your head that tells you it is pointless, that you are not making a difference that it can never happen, that you should walk away now……Those moments are when you are the closest to your miracle then ever before. The enemy is doing all he can to push you down. Let something rise up in you right now and say I am going to fight the good fight! I am in this to win!
Job 42:2 I'm convinced: You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans.
You see you have already won in God’s eyes. God gave you a beginning in this situation because He saw the end. He knew that you could do this thing! He knew that you are a winner! He knows you are a winner because He made you that way!!

So I have to ask you……Are you in this thing to win?
Are you going to choose life?
Is your destiny worth fighting another day?
Life is a fight….A daily choice to win or loose….I am in this thing to win……How about you?

Fight the good fight!

1 Timothy 1:18-19 Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.

1 Timothy 6: 11-12 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses

Paul is trying to get something across to us in these two verses.....

FIGHT

Life is a fight. Fight for what God wants for you in your life and against what the enemy wants to do to keep you from God's plan.

This week has been a huge fight for me. I guess I have been fighting discouragement a lot this week. Sometimes it is really easy to look at what is going wrong and not what is going right.

Bryan (my hubby) has been youth pastoring for 9 years now. There has been a lot of kids come through our youth group in those 9 years. Each kid that we have had we have loved them like they were one of our own children. We pour into them the whole time they are in youth...then there comes a time where they have to choose what kind of life they are going to live.

For the first time ever we had youth tell us that they didn't want to go to camp this year. That really broke my heart. You see last year we had it prophesied that we would have a youth group of 1,200 youth. Since then our youth have over doubled in size. So when this happened it really broke my heart. On top of all that we have several youth that have just totally walked away from the Lord this year......This breaks both of our hearts.

So long story short we reached out to several youth that said they didn't want to go to camp 4 of them changed their mind and are now going to come. This made me so happy.

I then thought about this verse. You see we are supposed to fight. Paul tells us to never give up. Lay hold of the words that have been spoken. It is all about our faith at these points. We can't give up. The worst thing we can do is lay down and stop. Paul also says the there are ones that have given up and shipwrecked their faith. How true that is those people are all around us all of the time.

About two years ago the Lord had shown me that I had focused too much on the youth and people that walked away from God, and not focusing on the ones that have been changed.

You see I know that all of you are not youth pastor's. You have different problems. Maybe marriage, children, finances, depression, health or whatever it is that you are batteling. I just want to encourage you to FIGHT. Don't ever give up. Don't ever let the enemy make you think that you are not gaining ground. I love what it says in Ephesians "having done all else stand and stand therefore"

Girls you stand in the face of your problems and know that God is on your side you stand and stand tall and watch God do BIG things on your behalf. Don't ever let the enemy make you think what you are doing is for nothing.

You see I know the visions in my heart. I see my husband preaching to hundreds of youth although we only have around 25 right now. I see kids coming up and getting delivered from drugs when my husband prays for them. Even though right now some of our youth are addicted to drugs. I see myself preaching to hundreds of women...even though the biggest I have preached at is around 80 ladies thus far. You see you have to go with the what you see in your heart.

Because on the great side since I have been in ministry I have seen so many youth saved, radically delivered, lives healed, marriages totally restored. So the enemy still has a few. I am just believing God that those kids (who most aren't kids anymore) are going to come back as the protical son did.

Fight girls fight, with everything you have. Your miracle may be closer than you thought. Never give up!! When I look at these pictures I don't just see people I see people that God has changed their lives forever! I know that some of them I am still believing God that their lives will be changed. I just stand on the word & know that they too will be changed it is just a matter of time!