Fighting Your Battles by Jonathan Evans

Author:Jonathan Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780736984058
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Published: 2022-06-27T00:00:00+00:00

Scan the QR code or visit https://jonathanblakeevans.com/fyb-film-2/ to view a message from Jonathan. (chapters 4–6)

CHAPTER 7

MORE THAN A BELIEVER

Many contrary circumstances come with the choice to follow Christ. People call Him by name all the time, especially when they’re facing trouble. But to commit to Him as your Lord, who you actually live for and live to serve, that’s where it gets real. In God’s battle plan, the goal for us is to reach the place in our relationship with Jesus where we’re not just believers but disciples—visible, verbal followers of Christ through every storm and difficulty, not just when the waters are calm.

I say that because I owe you the whole truth: once you make the commitment to be more than a believer, expect resistance.

If you read the book of Acts, you’ll see that as soon as Jesus’ disciples started going out into the world to share the gospel, the world started coming down on them. They were beaten; they were thrown in prison…I mean, things got rough.

I think about my own life and how difficult it was for me to walk away from the NFL. I’ve told some of my story in Your Time Is Now and within this book. The experience taught me a lot. Becoming a disciple means being willing to go against the currents.

Jesus’ disciples were about to learn this firsthand. After a full day of ministering to crowds of people, Jesus “compelled the disciples to get into the boat and to go ahead of Him to the other side.” Meanwhile, “He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray” (Matthew 14:22-23). Before long, a strong wind rose up on the Sea of Galilee, and these boys in the boat found themselves in a tumultuous situation, a storm.

We get different details as we read Matthew, Mark, and Luke in the Bible. The three books together are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels, meaning they tell the same accounts from different vantage points. In this scene, the Gospel of Mark says the men were “straining at the oars” (6:48), while Matthew’s Gospel says their boat was “battered by the waves” and they were facing a “contrary” wind (14:24). In the New American Standard Bible, the textual footnote provides a literal translation for the word “battered” as “tormented.” Their boat was tormented by the waves. So between both writers, we know that the disciples were straining at the oars, struggling to get any movement, because the winds were fighting them so hard.

Let me tell you something about the trials and tribulations of life. When you’re doing everything you can to get yourself out of difficulty but you’re getting no movement away from the difficulty, it’s probably because God has put you in it. We know that rough times are sometimes the result of disobedience, but not every time. The faithful also face resistance.

In their obedience, the disciples were experiencing contrary winds. Forceful winds that were pushing back at them. While in the will of God, they found themselves straining at the oars in a boat that was being battered by waves.

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