Focus: Winning by Losing

Text: Isa.30:18

"Yet the Lord still waits for you to come to him so he can show you his love; HE WILL CONQUER YOU TO BLESS YOU, just as he said…"

We live in a world where we fight for everything. We fight to stay alive. We fight to survive. We fight to defend our rights. We fight to defend our territories. We fight to defend our own. We fight for things material and temporal. We fight and kill over money. We fight for the right and wrong things.

This issue of seeing life as a fight is such that we are always fighting even for little or no reason. We fight ourselves, fight our own, fight in the family, fight in the church, and fight just about anywhere and everywhere.

The world has been turned into an arena of wars and conflicts. We fight in all the wrong places. We even fight against God. And the question is: do we ever get tired of fighting? James says, "Ye fight and war, yet ye have not." Look closely and you will see that at the center of most of these fights is our ego - just plain vain pride.

How do we learn to be really at peace - at rest? Surely, there is a good fight. Paul says, 'I fight, but not as one that beats the air.' He engages in no vain fights. God requires us to fight for peace, to pursue and sue for peace, to fight the good fight of faith, to fight for justice, to fight for the poor and for the defenseless. We fight to withstand Satan and his demons. Men of faith "waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens" (Heb.11:34).

God wants us to learn winning by losing. In Gen.25:26, Jacob received his name as one who fought his brother from the womb. He was fighting to be the first to come out from the womb - the opener of the womb. He was fighting to be the head. In Rebekah's womb the two boys struggled against each other, but Jacob lost the battle, because Esau succeeded in coming out first. But by losing Jacob won, because God had told their mother that the younger would be the head, meaning that had he won the fight against his brother and came out first, he would have lost the first place in the family and in everything. God made him lose to win. In Laban's house Jacob struggled to no avail until God came from the back door and blessed him. God turned over to him all of Laban's wealth and glory. He met his match in Laban, but God was there to help him.

In Gen.32:24, we read, "And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." He fought an unknown man throughout the night. It was a fight in which he was broken and limped for the rest of his life. He lost the fight, but in losing he won God's blessing. God gave him a new name and recruited him into His army. God said, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." God enlisted him into His army. He would be involved or engaged in the Lord's battles. He would be the Lord's warrior.

Let us learn to let God fight for us. He is called the man of war. Our Lord Jesus Christ is known both as the Prince of peace and the Lion of the tribe of Judah. God is a better and stronger fighter than any of us. He never loses a battle. Enter your rest and let God fight for you. Jesus Christ won the battle of Calvary without shedding anyone's blood. It was a battle in which He appeared to have lost. He was arrested, tortured, killed and buried. His so called enemies celebrated His seeming defeat. But it was in dying and seemingly losing that He won eternal victory for a new humanity. He came back from the dead by the power of God, achieved a new humanity and a new creation. Fighting is the world's way, not God's (Jh.18:36). May the Lord conquer us to bless us! Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter