Recover Your Fight

This post follows on from last week's blog, 'For the Lonely Battlegrounds.' You can read it here.

I'll never forget the feelings that I had when we arrived home from one of my childhood holidays to find that our home had been robbed. The feelings of vulnerability; of violation and of anger. It was evident that they'd been interrupted and not taken everything that they'd intended to - what I would later find out, was that friends of ours camped out in the lounge the following night with baseball bats on-hand to ensure that nothing further was lost!

Last week, I was reflecting on some of the lonely battlegrounds that I've personally been faced with in recent months. Actually, if I'm honest it was more like moping and feeling sorry for myself! I'd finished a time of prayer and Daniel Fasting and I just hadn't seen any of the breakthroughs that I'd hoped for, In fact, I found myself left with more questions than before I began and I was feeling somewhat flat and defeated. As I sat in my favourite chair (with coffee in hand of course!), David's story, his season of needing to strengthen himself in the Lord, challenged me for a different reason.

You see, after David wept; after He strengthened and encouraged himself in the Lord; after he sought God's counsel, he did something else - he pursued his enemy.

David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day, and none of them got away, except four hundred young men who rode off on camels and fled. David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives.
1 Samuel 30:17-18 (NIV)

Our weeping matters. Not only because our grief matters to God and He wants to comfort us in it, but because unless we allow ourselves to feel the depth of our loss and the weight of our pain, we will not reach the point of coming to the end of ourselves. We will not make room for God to be with us. What we do not mourn, we will not desire to recover. 

But equally, God does not desire us to stay in the place of mourning and weeping indefinitely. There are times that He asks us to rise up and pursue the enemy. To have the resolve that our friends did when they guarded our house that night with their baseball bats - that we will not allow ourselves or those we love to be robbed of what is rightfully theirs. That we will fight as long as it takes to recover what has been lost.

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The word pursue and you will recover that God gave David was not a detailed roadmap outlining exactly how he should do everything - it was more like a road sign giving David a sense of direction. It was an invitation for David to use his strengths and abilities to partner with what God was wanting to do in that situation. 
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David's resolve and his victory were fuelled by his intimacy with God. When his own strength was gone, he leaned on God to receive His. When he didn't know what to do next, He asked God. And when others wanted to claim the victory for themselves and not share the spoils with those who had remained behind, David gave God the credit saying:
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"No my brothers, you must not do that with what the Lord has given us. He has protected us and handed over to us the forces that came against us."
1 Samuel 30:23

David understood that victory did not lie in running ahead of God or in pursuing his own agenda, but in aligning himself with what God was saying and doing; in looking to God and honouring Him for His work in his life.

I knew that day that God was asking me to recover some of my 'fight.' That I was being challenged to not give up or retreat from what was before me. And so I wielded my sword, which is the Word of God (Eph. 6:17), and I began to declare aloud truths from Scripture; precious promises of God that have been meaningful in my own journey. Strength and determination began to build within me as I partnered with what God was saying, 

As I write these words, I wish I could tell you a story like David's - that after a few days of pursuing my enemy and wielding my sword that the victory was won and all was recovered. But that's not my testimony - ​yet. What I can tell you though is this: I'm not ready to give up on my lonely battlegrounds. I'm standing firm because I've learnt that when you stay steady in what God has promised, He can do the suddenly.

Where is God asking you to stand firm? To be willing to pursue and fight for what is rightfully yours? ​Partner with what He has promised and trust that He will not only protect you, but that in time, He will give you the victory.

Aimee Walker

Aimee started the On Becoming Esther blog to encourage people to pursue God's purposes for their lives.

She's a lover of words - especially His Word - who has to start the day with coffee in-hand to keep up with all the little people in her life. Get to know her more  here.