With another long week, the stress in my life seems to continue piling up. I feel like every day I’m fighting a new battle and after a while, it becomes very tiring. As humans, we want to do everything on our own and take things into our own hands. Even though we struggle we don’t want to give anything up in fear that we will look weak. We take on these unexpected battles and we fight until it tears us down.

The fight continues every day as we foolishly think that we are somehow strong enough to do it on our own. The problem is, that we are fighting a fight that has already been won. We begin to think that we are in control, but I can promise you we are not. What Jesus did for us was a gift so that we don’t have to fight these battles. The blood He shed on the cross was something that said: “The fight is over and it is finished.” So, if the battle has already been won, then why are we still fighting? What is it that we as humans think we can do that Jesus hasn’t already done.

If you’re anything like me, you have those moments (some might call out a “Jesus high”) where you get caught up in emotions and fall on your knees and surrender it all to the Lord. In this moment, we claim that we’re giving it all to him and letting Him fight our battles for us. However, this feeling seems to leave us so quickly. We get back into the daily swing of life and we start to take it all back into our own hands. We may have spent a moment in surrender but when we meet a struggle in our lives, we change our minds and want to take back control.

Our human nature is selfish and something that gets in the way of the Lord being in control of our lives. We have this idea that we always have to be fighting in order to defeat the enemy. Ephesians 6:13 says “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that on the day that evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” This verse tells us to put on the armor of God and to stand our ground, but it never says to pull out a sword and fight. We are here to serve the Lord and let Him be our focus and so often we lose sight of that.

We are flawed and broken without the Lord working in us and through us. Without the cross and without the gift of Jesus we are drowning in sin. The good news is that we are loved by the God of the universe so deeply that He gave up his son so that we may live. Because of this gift we are free to step back and let the Lord fight our battles for us. Satan will never stop trying to tear us down, but when the Lord is on our side we can be confident in knowing that we don’t have to fight back. The fight has been won, it is finished, and we are free to live our lives to serve and glorify the Lord knowing that the enemy has been defeated and that the perfect love of our savior will never be overcome.