The Personal Battles You Face and How to Fight Them with Jesus

The Personal Battles You Face and How to Fight Them with Jesus

We will slay the dragons,

and we will storm the castles,

and we will win a battle or two . . .

My dear friend’s little girl is up on stage, playing the part of young Will in the musical, Big Fish. Her voice is high, strong and sweet. Our culture compares voices like this to “like an angel”, and I understand this phrase, when I hear her sing.

But it’s more than that, too.

For angels are not meek and mild. Nor are they necessarily small and sweet. Rather, they are powerful. They are intimidating. They make people tremble when they see them. In the Bible, we hear angels tell humans “Do not fear” as they stand in their presence.

I imagine it is hope that is the opposite of fear. Perhaps, faith is the opposite of fear, too.

When my friend’s young daughter sings you can’t help but be convicted: Yes, this must be what an angel sounds like. Or, at least, this is a voice I want to tuck deep into my heart, a recording to hold fast.

I wonder what else we hear when we tune our hearts to God. Notice sound all around us–messages spoken–all ushering us to God.

These ears of ours? These hearts? We need to keep them open.

We will slay the dragons,

and we will storm the castles,

and we will win a battle or two . . .

Hear her now. She sings it. Slaying dragons. And storming castles. And winning battles. Doesn’t your heart leap when you consider what this translates to in your life? Doesn’t something in you call out, wanting to do these very things?

I bet it does.

Let’s fight these personal battles of ours with Jesus by our side.

Yes, we are made to slay dragons. We are made to storm castles. We are made to win battles. It just might not look exactly how the song describes.

But it doesn’t make it less true, and here’s why: We are made by a Creator who brings light into a world of darkness. When the angels came to rejoice in the birth of Jesus, the Son of God, born on earth, it wasn’t a lullaby they were singing. It was a war cry and celebration all at once, a rejoicing in a battle for hearts about to be rescued–and rescued already because of the love of a King who came down.

When angels declared the greatness of God’s love, when angels heralded the arrival of a King, a Savior, Emmanuel, could the message, underneath the song lifted high, have sounded a bit like this:

We will slay the dragons,

and we will storm the castles,

and we will win a battle or two . . .

Can these words, the war cry of love, be sung on a regular Thursday night from the stage of a school play? Can these words stir us because of who we are, because our Creator made something deep within us want to respond?

In songs of celebration and promise–and also of battles won–we recognize Home. We recognize what we are made to do–to not sit passive, defenseless and inhibited in the battle we face this day, in our particular lives, in our particular homes.

For we are made to slay dragons.

What are the lies, the disappointments, the wounds, Jesus is saying are yours to fight?

For we are made to storm castles.

What obstacles do you face right now and what relationships need you to come, with the love of Jesus, in your heart?

For we are made to win this battle.

Whom is Jesus calling you to love, with His full heart in you, this day, in the battle of your life right now?

Let’s open our eyes. Let’s hear the cry of the angels. Let’s hear and respond to the battle drum.

We will slay the dragons,

and we will storm the castles,

and we will win a battle or two . . .

I think the voice we heed, when we hear beauty and hope sung out like a battle cry, is a voice of gentleness, sometimes, but also a voice of strength. To go to battle, to break lies that we are not good enough, to let Jesus show us what in us needs to be healed, means we are participating in the song of the angels. They heralded the coming of a King.

There are messages that we respond to in our lives, words we are meant to hear, whether in a song, or in a book, or in a prayer, or in an apology, or in a disagreement, that we can use going forward into the battle of hearts with our King.

What words are being sung around you, in a whisper, a whistle, a gush of wind, a welcoming hug that usher you towards the remembering of who you are, how you are made, how you are loved, and what battle you are now called to fight? I’d love to hear about it.  

Happily linking up with Jennifer at #TellHisStory.

 

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This post appeared originally at www.GatherMinistries.com.