The Law of Opposition

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“To him who overcomes…” —Revelation 2:7

Do you ever feel you’re in a constant battle? Like life is one long series of struggles, where as soon as one is overcome, another drops right in to the queue?  Sickness, relationship issues, financial setbacks, job problems, depression, false accusations, those whack a moles keep coming. Wham! You beat down one but up pops another.

It’s not really about specific problems you know.  Whether it’s physical, emotional or spiritual, there’s a larger tug of war going on and you’re caught in the middle.  While you can’t control the negative events this war expresses itself as, you most certainly can choose how to respond, which determines the side you’re fighting for.

This is true too with world events.  Terrorist attacks, mass shootings, riots, college campus Marxism, vain and power hungry politicians exploiting tragedies to further ideological causes, citizens being pitted against one another; it’s all part of a larger clash between good and evil. Be wise about who and what you align yourself with, as the road can only go in two ways.

Oswald Chambers frames this well in today’s verse from his My Utmost for His Highest daily devotional.

“Life without war is impossible in the natural or the supernatural realm. It is a fact that there is a continuing struggle in the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual areas of life.

Health is the balance between the physical parts of my body and all the things and forces surrounding me. To maintain good health I must have sufficient internal strength to fight off the things that are external.

Everything outside my physical life is designed to cause my death. The very elements that sustain me while I am alive work to decay and disintegrate my body once it is dead. If I have enough inner strength to fight, I help to produce the balance needed for health.

The same is true of the mental life. If I want to maintain a strong and active mental life, I have to fight. This struggle produces the mental balance called thought.

Morally it is the same. Anything that does not strengthen me morally is the enemy of virtue within me. Whether I overcome, thereby producing virtue, depends on the level of moral excellence in my life. But we must fight to be moral. Morality does not happen by accident; moral virtue is acquired.

And spiritually it is also the same. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation…” (John 16:33). This means that anything which is not spiritual leads to my downfall. Jesus went on to say, “…but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” I must learn to fight against and overcome the things that come against me, and in that way produce the balance of holiness. Then it becomes a delight to meet opposition.

Holiness is the balance between my nature and the law of God as expressed in Jesus Christ.”

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

“When a man’s heart is right with God the mysterious utterances of the Bible are spirit and life to him. Spiritual truth is discernible only to a pure heart, not to a keen intellect. It is not a question of profundity of intellect, but of purity of heart.”