What Do We Fight?

Can’t find where I first ran across this photo.  It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Lovely gold, bright and dark, and the young boy in the lower right.

What do you think he’s trying to do?  Is he attacking the single branch, or is he taking on the tree as a whole?  Just how did he pick his fight?

If he’s taking on the tree as a whole, he’s certainly over estimated his abilities, or has no clue that only half of the tree is visible.

It made me think of our wrestling with God, or even the concept of God. We have no idea the size of the issue, much less of what we will do next.

Gamaliel understood this, though he did not understand (or believe in) Jesus as the promised Messiah:

And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God. (Acts 5:38-39 KJV)

God is sovereign.  We exist because that is His desire, His plan. There are battles we cannot possibly understand, hidden from us just as the roots of this tree are hidden from the child struggling with that one branch.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. (1 Corinthians 13:12 KJV)

Oh, yes, how He knows us!  He’s told us how much we have to answer for:

But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. (Matthew 12:36 KJV)

In that same judgment, we are also justified by words:

For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. (Matthew 12:37 KJV)

Jesus had more to say about our words:

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33 KJV)

That thought is expanded upon by Paul:

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. (Romans 10:10-11 KJV)

Don’t fight against God.  Accept that there are things we will not understand in this life, and accept the eternity of life that He offers.