When God Leaves Something to Fight

There are times when I would very much like God to remove some struggles altogether.

Flatten the mountain. Silence the opposition. Close the difficult door before I ever reach it. Spare me the detour, the resistance, the uncertainty, and preferably anything requiring character development before breakfast.

But sometimes God does something very different.

Sometimes He allows resistence to remain.

That is what makes Judges 3:2 so striking: “Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof.”

A new generation of Israelites had grown up without experiencing the battles their fathers had fought. They inherited the land and the stories of victory, but they had never personally learned what it meant to stand their ground when something stood against them.

And God considered that something they needed to know.

That makes me wonder whether I am sometimes praying for the removal of the very resistance God intends to use for my growth.

Resistance does something ease cannot. A muscle strengthens because something pushes against it. Roots reach deeper when water is not always waiting conveniently at the surface. Even learning to walk requires discovering how to regain our balance after gravity rather rudely introduces itself.

Spiritually, there are lessons that seem to work much the same way.

Patience cannot really develop where nothing tests it. Courage has little opportunity to grow where nothing frightens us. Self-control means very little where nothing tempts us. Perseverance cannot be learned if every obstacle disappears the moment we encounter it. And faith never becomes steadfast if it is never required to stand against something that argues, God cannot be trusted here.

Perhaps that is part of what makes this verse so challenging. Most of us naturally assume that if God loves us, He should remove whatever is making the road difficult. Yet sometimes His purpose may not be to make the road easier, but to make us stronger, steadier, more discerning, and more dependent upon Him while we walk it.

That does not mean every hardship comes from God. We live in a fallen world, and Scripture never asks us to call evil good. But it does mean that nothing God permits has to be wasted.

Some prayers are answered when the obstacle moves.

Others may be answered while it remains.

Because sometimes God changes the circumstances.

And sometimes, through resistance, He changes the person standing in them.

If this Fireside Chat warmed your spirit and sparked fresh resolve to live what you believe, fan that flame with Scripture—“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). Pull a little closer to the Light, and carry it into the week ahead.

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