Recently my husband and I watched the movie Rocky Balboa, which is the sixth in the Rocky series and my personal favorite. There is a scene when Rocky gives his son the “life speech” which is incredibly moving and inspirational. I always cry. We finished the movie and deleted it from our DVR.
Weeks later my life began to resemble a Rocky Balboa movie: the injustice of those who misuse authority at my work, the struggle of ministry, conflicts with people I love, disappointments and struggles that drove me to my knees; I was living it. I was in the fight. The punches were hard and the hurt, stress and helpless began to pour over me.
We all have been there seemingly paralyzed by the situations of life. I made the decision to fast and pray and during my fast my family wanted to go for hike. As we were climbing the mountain I felt weak and I told them to go ahead and I would meet them. As I continued the incline I wanted to stop, turn around; after all I was fasting! Hiking was hard that day and I wanted to quit. As weird as it may sound, the Rocky speech from the movie popped into my head. “You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward.”
The enemy wants to cripple our faith and rob us of our peace. The bible exhorts us in Romans 8:37-39, “In all these things, (the struggles of live and the fight), we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God’s love gives us the courage and the strength to get up and to fight. The decision we have to make is to stay in the fight and keep moving forward.
I climbed to the top that day! It was hard, I was tired and drained but it was a special moment. My struggles have not gone away and many of them I am still facing, but the decision to keep moving forward has been made.
In conclusion, persevere in the fight! I encourage you to not give up and keep moving forward. Remember, “In all these things we are more than conquers through Him who loved us.” Roman 8:37
Blessings,
DaNetta
I just watched ‘Rocky Balboa’ this year! 🙂
God has been teaching me about fighting too. Thank you for these encouraging words.
Thank you for this. I was gonna read it the day it was posted but didn’t, I needed it today right now as I read it. I haven’t had such a challenging day as today. My finances are in the hole, monies that I normally get did not come in and can not find out why. So do I crumble or do I keep moving forward? I will keep forward and I will trust my God with all I have. The enemy will not steal my joy and my peace. I will fight with all I have to depend on him who loves me and who is taking care of business for me. I have no control over this situation but my God does. In Him I will trust. Thanks again