"I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith."

What's a good fight?

Faith.  For years I've blogged about faith.  And now, tonight, I return to talking about faith.  In the above verse faith is something to be kept.  So often it is easy to look as faith as an inanimate action, a goal to obtain.  When, in reality, faith is something that needs to be continuously nurtured.  Maintained.  Faith, for me, is an action.  It is choosing to look beyond the current circumstances of life.  It is in believing that there is more, that God is in control.  It is crying out to the Lord pleading for faith to believe.  It is releasing anxiety and replacing it with trust.  And it is living a life of joy in whatever circumstances.

But how in the world does one keep the faith?  Especially in a world that preaches self, floods us with anxiety, and where hardships are the normal.  Take for example the "self-talk" that saturates our society. The Lord desires that we cast our cares on Him.  The world tells us to solve the problem on our own.  The world preaches self-empowerment.  The Bible tells us to live by faith.  Does that mean doing nothing?  Absolutely not.  It does mean living a life that is dependent upon the Lord AND using the talents that He has blessed us with.  Think of the Parable of the Talents.  The individual who hid his talents was a disgrace to His master.  Our Lord blesses us with a multitude of talents and gifts to use.  As a homeschooling mother I need to rise up and lean upon the Lord every day.  Every hour.  He sustains me...through prayer and faith I can move forward with my day with a heart of peace.  There is something freeing in the act of releasing anxiety and worry to the Father.  The anxiety is at His feet thus freeing me up to look at the problem objectively. 

In my life, our finances are still daunting and difficult.  It would be so easy for me to give up, to throw in the towel, to not care.  Oh, how alluring the idea of not caring can be.  If I didn't care, then I wouldn't hurt.  But fighting a good fight means caring even when there is pain.  Fighting means keeping the faith...and in this case faith that the Lord will provide, that these trials will end, and that there will be victory...despite the world telling me that we have lost.   The Lord doesn't want us to live in a place of loss.  Through Him we are victorious, my friends! 

And there is NO SHAME.  I'll say it again...there is NO SHAME in Christ.  For years the struggles of finances wore my spirit down and I began to feel intense shame.  And so I hid.  I didn't discuss the pain and ache.  But, several weeks before Todd was diagnosed with cancer I knew I was to release the mask and talk.  So for three years now I've talked.  And I've healed.  And others have come forward and dropped the shame, the masks, that they were clinging to.  So I talk about the struggles, I talk about how I desire to lean on the Lord, and how I want to fight.  And fighting is what I am doing.  I will not back down and let this world determine my hope.  My hope is in the Lord!  He is good!

As you journey forward in life, keep up the shield of faith.  In Ephesians it is written that the shield of faith will "extinguish the fiery darts of the evil one."  Hold your shield high.  Lean on Christ. Keep up the fight! 

There is hope. There is victory.

Blessings,

Rachel