Thursday, January 23, 2014

Let's Fight: Fighting the Good Battles as a Teenage Girl.




My mind and heart are full of you today.  I think of you, dredging through the hallways of your high school or middle school, as if they were trenches on a battle field.

I know that you are fighting a battle on every front.  There are battles for your heart, for your soul, and for your mind at every turn.

I know that there are battles on the outside.  The battle of school and sports and work press in on you, weighing you down and replacing your joy with anxiety.  There is the ongoing fight with Mom or Dad about your attitude, the drama and cat fights with your semi-friends, the annoyance of siblings or coworkers.

Yet, the battles within seem to be an even great duel.

You know that you are supposed to stand on God's promises, to stand in His love, (much less to make a difference in your world), but the knocks and blows of peer pressure or distraction just keep you down.

You hear that Jesus loves you, that He is with you, but when another semester has started and you continue to fight a silent loneliness, depression, or apathy, it's hard to remember His love, right?

Maybe your battle is just fear of a fight.  You don't believe you have the courage to fight this world's temptations, your own thoughts, or the lies that have made a home in your head.  And so you turn, 360 degrees, nervous and trembling, believing that if you did actually fight on any of these fronts, that you would immediately fail.

Maybe 2014 has began with guilt from a year of failure. You know you lost more battles than you won last year.  You lost to lust, vanity, selfishness, and comfort.  Perhaps you are face-down in the mud because of the weight of your failure.   You know how you are supposed to act, but for the life of you, you can't seem to win the battle over your own sins. (I'm with you girls.)

Maybe God has recently awakened your heart to not only His love for you, but His purpose for you.  And now that you have found yourself fully employed in the Kingdom of God, your heart is pumping with excitement and dreams and a willingness to do whatever God asks.  But right on the heels of a great work of God is the opposition from the world.  And you are fighting daily--fighting to believe in God's strength, fighting to be understood, fighting to complete the mission God has called you to.

Or, perhaps your fight is against an inner disease.  A disease of the heart--doubt, anxiety, isolation.  I know many of you look in the mirror and misunderstand what is looking back at you.  You see a girl, maybe too fat, or too flat, or too plain.  You see a girl, maybe too rebellious or too weak or too insignificant to even engage in a battle.  You are so unsure of yourself that you believe it would be best to not fight at all, just to throw your hands up in the air and not fight these battles of a daughter of God.

Girls, do you know what God sees in that mirror?

Yes, he sees you as beautiful and unique.  But there is more to it, an identity with way more depth than just being attractive! God sees a fighter!  God sees His daughter, that he loves very personally, a daughter that he treasures and understands!  And He comes next to you, in front of that mirror, and he says:

"Daughter, we got this. I know the battles are many, and long.  You feel tired, or defeated, or guilty.  But we got this.  I am here, with you.  So be strong and courageous! I'm going to fight for you, daughter, because I love you more than your imagination could even dream up.  So let's do this--take on 2014 with my promises, with your identity based on how I see you.  You will not fail when you fight with me, and for me.  I have plans for you, plans for you to fully jump into a life of purpose and adventure, plans for you to change this world. You are not alone, I hear you and see you.  So be strong, in my love.  Be courageous, I built you to be a fighter."

Girls, God made us to be victorious, to be conquerers.  I know that, as girls, it's often just easier to not fight.  To just take the easier road, go with the flow, just live with a poor self-esteem rather than fighting the lies.  It's easier, at times, to chose the mundane routine of adolescence, rather than jump into the battle and adventure of God's calling.

But when we fight the good fight, when we fight to discover who we are in Christ, and we fight to be all His love has called us to be, we find a satisfaction and joy that can't be defeated.

I'm praying this for you today. You are adored by our God.
So go kick butt.

1 Chronicles 28:20
"Then David said to his son Solomon, "Be strong and courageous, and act; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, my God, is with you.  He will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished."

Exodus 14:14
"The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still."


No comments:

Post a Comment