Fight for Your Family Fighting For

Fight for Your Family

Fighting For

Fight for your family, what are we fighting for?

What is the goal? What is the prize? What is the reward?

Every battle needs a clear objective

But maybe more important than the list

Is to know, fighting for the family can be discouraging

I have a wonderful family by the grace of God

But it seems I fight discouragement every day as I fight for my family

I can never give them enough, never love them enough

I always feel like my fight is not enough and at times I am out of energy

I pray about a lot of things and for a lot of people

But nothing gets more prayer than my family

Their precious lives keep me on my knees

Because I cannot fail, I cannot give up

The risk is too great

So fight for your family and never forget

Our God is called “FATHER”

Our family is to be God’s Family

Fighting For

Fight for your family.

What are we fighting for?

What is the goal?

What is the prize?

What is the reward?

Every battle needs a clear objective.

A mark of completion.

An image or vision.

I remember seeing a picture

of a family in a man’s office.

The wife was the trophy wife.

The kids had the look of education and class.

Even the frame and mat the picture

was on, had the look of expensive.

The picture looked like the perfect family.

But the family was in crises…

And played out like a bad

movie of crime and divorce.

Getting the right picture

in our minds is important.

Knowing what we are

fighting for has to be clear.

I think the best picture of the perfect family is…

The loving husband and wife

holding their first born child.

It is perfect and from that point

on it is one mistake after another.

Mistakes that may affect a

lifetime and generations to come.

The management of time…

The management of words and even expressions

The diets and exercise

The games and the work

The values and the education

The quality and quantity of things

All these are a part of every family.

Although people looking at the family

picture only see the dressed up version…

 Every family has struggles others do not see.

What is so hard is we can’t go

back and start over with a clean slate.

Our mistakes live with us and that gives

us another challenge to work with.

So it is clear…

 Fighting for the family is not an easy job.

As important as it is that we realize

there are things we fight against…

 We first need to see what we are to fight for.

So what do we fight for?

Consider the first thing we fight for is “image”.

As mom and dad look at their child,

 they see themselves in that child.

The image is a constant reminder

of belonging to a family.

Trace the image back to the beginning and

you will see God created us in His image.

The image of God is the perfect

picture of what we should fight for…

God created you in His image.

If He created you as a woman…

 Be a woman.

 Although God is generally viewed in the male form…

 The scriptures are full of descriptions

of God with female attributes.

 (Deuteronomy 32:18, Proverbs 1:20-22, 8:1- 9:6)

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:27

The same is true if God made you male…

 Be a man.

But the image of God is more than gender…

 The image of God is Love.

The image of God is perfection in values and virtue.

Paul the apostle talked about a personal fight.

 He said…

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord,

the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day —

and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

2 Timothy 4:7-8

Paul also said in Philippians 3:12-14…

Not that I have already obtained all this,

or have already been made perfect,

but I press on to take hold of that

for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.

But one thing I do:

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

I press on toward the goal to win the prize

for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Paul reminds us that all we

are to fight for, has an end goal.

So we fight from the beginning to be like God.

And to the end…

 We fight to win the prize of perfection.

To lay out the things we are to fight for as

a family, we need to realize family started

at creation and it concludes in eternity.

Everything we put on the list to fight for

needs to fit in between these two points.

Our goal is to make a straight line

(the shortest distance between two points).

But you and I know we make mistakes and the

line becomes wavy and at times even full of knots.

At those times, God’s grace,

His mercy is there for us…

 To give us the strength to get up and fight again.

Maybe as you read this you are disappointed that

I did not go into more detail of the list to fight for. 

And that is true…

 But I hope you are challenged to think

and meditate on the list of things to fight for.

But maybe more important than the list is to

know fighting for the family can be discouraging.

I have a wonderful family,

by the grace of God.

But it seems I fight discouragement

every day as I fight for my family.

I can never give them enough.

I can never love them enough.

I always feel like my fight is not

enough and at times I am out of energy.

I pray about a lot of things and for a lot of people.

But nothing gets more prayer than my family.

Their precious lives keep me on my knees.

Because I cannot fail, I cannot give up.

The risk is too great.

So fight for your family and never forget… 

Our God is called “FATHER”.

Our family is to be God’s Family.

With God we can do all things

because He strengthen us.

No, in all these things we are more than

conquerors through him who loved us.

Romans 8:37

I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13

   

Scripture Reading

Nehemiah 4:12-15 NIV

12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us."

13 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. 14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."

15 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work.