Death Match

When I was growing up I dreamed of being a boxer. I loved watching boxing movies and boxing matches.  I begged my parents to buy me a punching bag and gloves one year and when they didn't I cried about it until they gave in.

I suppose the fixation began when Tyson bit Holyfield's ear.  After that incident, I was intrigued by the sport.  It carried a certain aura, a persona of manliness and strength and a confidence that I could only dream of having.  As scrawny and afraid of conflict as I was, I never really expected to become a boxer.  I knew that it was out of my league, that it was an activity better suited for men with muscles and tattoos, but I dreamed nonetheless.

Even to this day I have a certain level of respect for boxers.  Heck I even named my dog Rocky Balboa.  Really, that is his whole name.  If I could find some little boxing gloves for his collar I would get them without a second thought!  Ali, Frazier, Balboa - these are the men I respect and admire, even if they were sweaty, battered, and bloody in their finest moments.

The world of boxing is one that will always fascinate me, but that I will never be a part of.  Unless we are talking about boxing in the spiritual sense. 

Today, I find myself in a war.  A battle of monumental proportions.  A fight to the death with an enemy who is strong and fierce and relentless.  It's not Mike Tyson, or even Sonny Liston (who would undoubtedly kill me - probably even without the boxing ring).  Today my enemy is one whose weight I don't know, whose face I can't see, whose taunting I can't hear.

Sin.

Every day I find myself in a battle with this detestable thing called sin.  And often, when I am under attack, I wonder if today will be the day when it kills me, when it utterly destroys me.  I wonder if I will have the strength to overcome it.  I wonder if I am even defending myself or if I am simply taking the punches.

As a human being, born of the flesh, I have a sinful nature.  My flesh desires things that are contrary to God.  My flesh wants to sin, all the time, no matter what.  But when I was saved, I was given a new nature.  I was given a new desire - to please God, to live godly, to do good things.  I am now able to "put on the new man" and "put off the old man."  The only problem is that it doesn't always happen like that.  While sometimes I find it easy to live godly and turn away from sin, there are times when obeying Christ doesn't seem to come naturally to me, when walking in the flesh and responding in the flesh and acting in the flesh is my initial tendency.  And this is the battle.

The battle between the flesh and the spirit.

Ephesians 6 tells me that I "wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the...world forces of this darkness..."The word "wrestle" literally refers to a hand-to-hand combat, a fight to the death.  Mortal Kombat style battle.  Like UFC on steroids. Times a hundred.  Now that is fierce. And that is what faces me every single day. 

But there is hope for me.  And for you, too.  In case you didn't know, you are in the battle also, even if you can't see it or don't feel its affects.  The hope lies in the fact that Christ dwells within me and I have "overcome the evil one (1 John 2:14)."  The hope comes from the fact that Christ came to "destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8)."  The hope for all of us in the middle of the battle is in the fact that "our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin (Romans 6:6-7)." 

There is hope. All throughout the Bible.  God knows what kind of war we are in.  He sees the battle that I face every day.  And He cares.  Deeply. 

I may feel overwhelmed at times by the attacks and the assaults and the temptations and the struggle.  I may get frustrated and angry about it.  I may feel like giving up.  But one thing I can remember and lean on and bet everything on is that, even though I am in a battle and even though my enemy is Mike Tyson fierce and even though sometimes I feel weak - HE HAS ALREADY WON!  And that fact gives me the strength to face the enemy - my despicable flesh, the sin that lies within me, the devil - and put up my gloves and keep fighting. 

It is a death match.  Someone will die.  But I have been promised eternal life - so it's not going to be me...