But as for you, man of God, …aim at righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.
Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
(1 Timothy 6:11-12)But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
(Romans 13:14)
Life, this side of heaven, is a battle.
It is meant to be.
It is the way God has ordained for us to win our place in the kingdom.
We are promised victory in Christ, but there is no victory without warfare.
We need to turn aside from the siren song of peace and comfort that this world presents to us, and soberly set ourselves to fight the “good fight of the faith.”
What follows are a few tips for fighting this spiritual battle under Christ’s guidance.
- Our battle is not mainly against other people.
Our fight is primarily against the fleshly aspects within ourselves, and against demonic forces.
As St. Paul teaches, “we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
The world around us does not know this, and it obsesses over human opponents.
We don’t want to become distracted from the real fight. - The gift of the Spirit takes us beyond our own capacities.
We battle against our flesh in the power of God’s Spirit.
If we try to fight only under our own power and strength, we will fail.
But the Lord has promised us heavenly grace and power to aid us in our battle.
Let us live in hope and confidence, because “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). - Fight with the long view in mind.
The battle against the flesh is not won in a day, a week, or a year.
We need to develop the habit of spiritual warfare.
In this fight, there are no Christian civilians; we are all soldiers, all the time.
King David, who was a good fighter, said: “Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all the evildoers from the city of the LORD.” (Psalms 101:8).
The city he speaks of is our own inner life.
We need to battle, daily, against whatever is evil in us. - Beware the poison of discouragement.
Our spiritual enemies know that if we fight with the Lord’s strength, we will win.
Even when we fall repeatedly, if we get back up again, restore our relationship to our Master, and keep fighting, the devil has no chance.
His only winning strategy is to get us to stop fighting.
He attempts to draw us into sin with a left jab, and if he succeeds, he tries to give us a knockout blow with a right cross of discouragement.
He will tell us that it’s no use fighting, that God has cast us off, that we are hopeless cases, that it’s too hard to keep going.
Lies.
As St. Alphonsus Ligouri once said, if we sin seventy times in a day, get up and repent seventy times, and keep fighting.
The only way we lose is if we give up. - Make use of the means of grace.
Stay close to the sacraments; get to confession; be steady in prayer; give the Holy Spirit room to do his transforming work.
And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
(Philippians 1:6)
