“IF YOU SAW THE SIZE OF THE BLESSING COMING, YOU WOULD UNDERSTAND THE MAGNITUDE OF THE BATTLE YOU ARE FIGHTING.”
“When we are in the battle it is hard to believe that it will ever come to an end. When we are in a period of blessing we sometimes expect it will go on forever. But life is not like that. There are battles and blessings. Rick Warren says that he used to think that the Christian life was a succession of battles and blessings, whereas now he thinks of life as being on two tracks. At any given moment in life there are usually blessings, but also battles to face. He gives the example of the huge blessing that came to him through the publication of The Purpose Driven Life, which became the fastest-selling Christian book of all time. It gave him enormous influence. But at the same time he found out that his wife, Kay, had cancer. On one track of his life there was great blessing; on the other track there was a massive battle to face.
Life is not just a matter of defensively seeing off the attacks; there are also positive advances to make. Jesus was on a mission. He began to build his team for that mission calling his first disciples: ‘Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women...” They... dropped their nets and followed’ (vv.19–20, MSG). These were exciting times. The beginning of the ministry of Jesus was a period of great blessing.
Lord, help me to follow the example of Jesus in battle and blessing. May I learn your word so I can respond to temptation and be courageous in proclaiming the message of Jesus.”
Excerpt from: “Battles and Blessings” by Nicky Gumbel. (The whole Web article is at the link below.)
Jesus Himself was tested in the wilderness, immediately after He received the blessing of baptism and the Spirit descending on Him “like a dove.” (Mark 1:10-11) The Bible doesn't say ALL of what those tests were, but that Jesus was led (some translations say “forced out”) into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit and tempted “to do evil” by Satan (Mk 1:9-13, Matt 4:1-11) for FORTY DAYS! The enemy probably didn't hold back because Jesus was the Son of God - quite the opposite one would imagine. The enemy probably relished the opportunity to torture Jesus any opportunity he got. So Jesus knows what we go through. But after the battle of temptation and the Cross, Jesus now has the ultimate blessing of triumphantly “being seated at Gods right hand!” (Many verses on that here.)
Friend, if you are in a BIG BATTLE right now, an EVEN BIGGER BLESSING from God is in its way! Amen! 🙌
I have never forgotten a talk I heard over thirty years ago. The speaker started by saying that the Christian life is ‘battle and bles
