FAITH IS A BATTLE, A STRUGGLE
“Fight the good fight with all thy might.” And that good fight is the battle with yourself to believe; it is the struggle against pervasive doubt.
Dr. Smiley Blanton, the great psychiatrist, great human being, deep Christian, used to say that he could help any person to become well if he could get that person to put up a real fight within himself to believe.
His pointed out hat people develop fear and anxiety and all manner of emotional troubles because they do not have deep inner security, the kind that faith produces.
He stressed that the first element in healing is to develop the capacity to believe. This requires struggle because it runs contrary to those harbored negativisms that give rise to fear.
As you start to build faith, old doubts will do everything in their power to discourage you. Just when you think you’ve learned to believe, doubt will whisper, “Oh, no, you don’t.” When you believe that you’re going to gain the victory of faith, doubt will sneer, “Oh, no, you haven’t.” Doubt will try to confuse you and make you think that faith is an illusion.
What, then, can you do? The answer is simple and direct: Stand up to your doubts; take authority over them. One man talks out loud to his doubts. He lectures them, “Sit down and keep still.” And again, “Go away, I don’t believe in you. I won’t listen to you anymore.” He found this practice very rewarding.
Try some such method. View yourself as the absolute master of your doubts. Be ever on the alert, for doubts will sneak up on you when your guard is down.
Remember always that faith is a fight against disbelief, a struggle against doubt!
Faith Passages
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life. (I Timothy 6:12)
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. (I Thessalonians 5:8)
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. (I John 5:4)
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. (II Timothy 4:7)
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