Fight the Good Fight of Faith, English Edition

Lesson : The Enemy We Fight • 

brotherhood throughout the world.” She was trying to understand what it meant to be firm in your faith. In the study she had heard the leader say that the word “resist” here in this text was the Greek term antistete , the same one used in Ephesians 6.11-13 and James 4.7. It means to remain faithful, trusting in God’s Word, even if things seem to be going opposite of what you think. She was struggling, with tough questions. “Does that mean that I can’t or shouldn’t doubt? What if I become discouraged? What if I slip and fall – can I get back up?” How would you counsel this young sister to understand this concept? 2. “Why would God allow the devil to keep harassing and hurting us, even after our Lord Jesus has already won for us the victory?” One of the more puzzling ideas for new believers to understand is why it is necessary for believers to stand firm in their faith against the lies of the enemy, if Jesus has won the victory. Surely, Jesus has defeated the devil on the Cross (Col. 2.15), and believers have overcome him through the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, loving not their own lives to the death (Rev. 12.9-10). Why, then, do they still need to fight? Why is God allowing the devil to fight against his people, even after Jesus destroyed his works in his first coming (1 John 3.8)? (Hint: Jesus said that the servant is not greater than his master, cf. John 13.16.) 3. “Nobody can understand the kind of pain and heartache that I have gone through. Nobody.” When we face difficult times, heartache, or loss, we are often tempted to think that no one else has ever gone through testings or trials similar to our own. The nature of pain and loss is intimate and personal; our hurt and struggles can be so fierce that we are inclined to think that no one else has ever felt the way we do, that nobody could possibly understand the level of hurt, discouragement, and despair that we are facing. A number of texts in the Bible suggest that this is simply not the case. However difficult our trials, they are similar to the tests and trials that other believers around the world are facing. Look at 1 Cor. 10.13 (ESV): “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” How can our understanding of this truth help us endure trial in the face of difficult times?

Thanks be to God who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15.57)! We have been rescued from the power of the devil, delivered from the kingdom of darkness, redeemed through the blood of

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