1 Timothy 6:12 (NLT)
Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses.
“You keep punching until you can’t punch no more.”- Rocky Balboa
Every time I come across Scripture dealing with fighting, my mind conjures up images from the Rocky series. So naturally they came to mind when our author discusses our greatest fight- and that of the Western church- as being the passionate pursuit of joy. The reason that much of the joy has been sapped from our churches is that we take a lazy or cavalier attitude into worship. We “run out of time” to prepare our heart for worship. We come anyway, fellowship and talk, sing songs that are cool and relevant, and often listen unemotionally as the Message is delivered. The entire time our enemy Complacency is unmercifully beating us the way Clubber Lang pummeled an unprepared and arrogant Rocky in part three.
Our fight for joy isn’t something we can just show up for. It calls for us to defend and protect ourselves but we must also go on the offensive to “strengthen the fruit-bearing fields of joy in GOD.” (37) In our worship, let us drop the pretenses and hang-ups and fall before a glorious and loving GOD. Weep. Shout. Throw your hands up. Close your eyes. Forget everyone and everything around you and reach out. Then take the offensive out of the church’s doors. Seek out those who irritate you and do something nice for them. Turn the TV off and sit around the dinner table as a family. Go to bed a few minutes earlier so you can get up a few minutes earlier to pray before beginning your day.
We throw around the phrase, “this is the fight of my life” often. So let’s start acting like it. Although he is no C.S. Lewis, take up one of Rocky’s many mantras. “Going that last round when you don’t think you can is what makes all the difference in the world.”
Press on-
