Battle Your Way To Victory.

How many have you read the story of Jonah.? Well I think most of you even know it by memory alone. Today I’m going to be talking about the fish not Jonah. Some think it was a whale another think as a big fish but truth to be told I can’t even imagine what kind of fish it was. We don’t know what the sea had back them or what it has nowadays. Of course we have advanced in science from those times in the Bible. Even the word says that “science or knowledge would increase” D 12:4.

Anyway let me get back on track. Can you imagine a big fish coming out of nowhere and swallowing Jonah after he was thrown from the ship. I can’t imagine that but if we focus In verse 17 of chapter 1 of Jonah we would understand; this is what it says;

“17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

Many versions of the bible have prepared, provided or appointed but it has the same meaning. What I’m trying to get here; is that God was the one who called or even allowed( if you wan to go in that direction) this fish to swallow Jonah. We are like Jonah; we decide what’s right or what’s wrong; even sometimes we go over and we think we can direct God to do what we want not what he has plan for us. When I read the book of Jonah I never actually paid attention to the scripture I just read the word; it’s like when you eat without tasting the food and you miss out on all the goodness and flavor. For me the fish represents a trial that he had to go through to teach him a lesson as probably a fish or trial is in your life in this moment trying to teach you to battle, to strengthened you spiritual self.Sometimes the Lord provides this hardships and trials for us to see what we will do in a hard situation; if we are going to throw the towel and say “I’m done” or if you say; ” I’m going to come out victorious at the end of this trial”.Whatever addiction you are trying to battle or sickness and it’s not because, he doesn’t love of us that he gives us this situation.Actually he loves way too much; we don’t deserve his love or mercy.

Romans 8:38-39

“38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I’m going to share a personal story with you guys today. When I was sixteen years old my mother was diagnosed with 5 degenerated disks in her spine. It was a hard thing to go through as family because, back then my brother was lost in drugs and alcohol. It was only me, my father and her. But he had to work because my mother was laid off. So at the end it was only me and her during this hardship. There were moments when I cried out from my bed and I would scream and shout in my head to God asking him ;”Why have you abandon us”, ” Why have you given up on us”, “Why did this happened to us”Or the best one yet, ” Don’t you love us”. I didn’t know that what he was doing; putting that situation in our lives, he was teaching me and my mother how to battle. I can’t say that I did because, I did not but what I can say it’s that I saw my mother struggle and continue on even though she could not stand, sleep or even walk sometimes. We even had to carry her everywhere most of the time.

Matthew 11:28

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and loaded down with burdens, and I will give you rest. “

During those three years I went through the motions of being a christian; I was rebelling against the Lord for what he had done to us. The book of Jonah speaks to my life a lot because I was that rebellious with him; I thought in my own child like mind that if I behaved that way I was going to make him give in. It was an act of a petulant child; when he or she don’t get what they want. However those three years I saw a spiritual woman who did not give up; even though she was given the diagnosis of being 99% in a wheelchair by the end of that year or that her middle son was lost to drugs and alcohol. I saw a woman who believed in her God and at the end came out victorious. He restored those 5 disks to health and rescued her son from alcohol,drugs and even death. Don’t give up on what you are going through right now because, he is there right beside you. I gave up and I regret it because it was one of the reason I got so lost in those years spirituality and it brought me a battle within myself. I wish I have had the strength and courage to battle it out but it took me until last year to learn to battle and I’m still a beginner( a baby actually) in this.Don’t give up he will fight for you and with you; just don’t quit on it. Put the armor of GOD.