Messes To Masterpieces

His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:21

A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. Psalms 37:16

The words “a few”, and “a little” appear insignificant. Yet, there may come a time in life when “few” and “little” are all we have to work with. It can even look on the surface that we are fighting for and holding onto a little that still remains. Let’s dive into this some more to see if there is something the Lord can show us in “fighting for what remains”.

A Remnant Of God Always Remains

God always has a remnant, a people who despite the prevailing winds of unbelief, popular opinion, and worldly, fleshly desires, surround their lives with hope and trust in a God who they believe is worthy of EVERYTHING. What is the believer in God and those trusting in the Lordship of Jesus Christ up against?

One major obstacle that hinders one’s faith to mature and be fruitful is this world we live in that is controlled and dominated by a god whose name is satan. There are two names that define the swirling thought pool that pervades this world, and dictates fallen humanity – the aion and the Kosmos. Here is an excellent description of what constitutes “the world”, commonly known as the Kosmos:

“All that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations, at any time current in the world, which it may be impossible to seize and accurately define, but which constitutes a most real and effective power, being the moral, or immoral atmosphere which at every moment of our lives we inhale, again inevitably to exhale, – all this is included in the aion, which is, as Bengel has expressed it, the subtle informing spirit of the Kosmos, or world of men who are living alienated and apart from God”. (Richard C. Trench)

Other writers define it as:

“The Germans have a word for it, zeitgeist, “the spirit of the age.” “World” is the head, his demons are his emissaries, and all the unsaved Kosmos, which here refers to the system of evil of which satan are his slaves, together with the purposes, pursuits, pleasures, and places where God is not wanted”. (Johann A. Bengel)

“To distinguish the words, one could say that Kosmos gives the overall picture of mankind alienated from God during all history, and aion represents any distinct age or period of human history as marked out from another by particular characteristics.” (Kenneth Wuest)

This is what your faith in God is up against. This is what you face when you wake up in the morning. This is what you are confronted with when you leave your home to go to school, your job, run your errands, or conduct your daily activities. This world we live in, this age or epoch of darkness now existing upon the earth can only be defeated when we decide to fight for some things that the enemy does not want us to have. What is that? It is to be an overcomer.

The word of God tells us that we have three contenders on earth each fighting for supremacy over the eternal, powerful things available through God’s Spirit and Truth – the flesh, the devil, and the world. And the devil is ALWAYS looking for an open door. It is through these doors that satan leveled his three-pronged attack against Jesus during his 40-day wilderness experience (Mat 4:1-11). The first two are more familiar to us than the last enemy, the world:

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 John 2:15-17

Jesus will have a people, a remnant of overcomers, who will choose him over the world, over lust and over pride. God will always have a remnant who will fight for what remains. Let’s look at some who did.

Sea Voyagers Fight For What Remained

And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land. Act 27:44 

The scene did not offer any sense of hope. The ship was on a journey to Rome with some very valuable cargo. We do know the cargo manifest included two men called of God; the Apostle Paul and Luke, the writer of two NT books (The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts). We are also told the ship encountered an unrelentless storm as the sun had not appeared “for many days” (Act 27:20). As the writer Luke penned it, it was a hopeless situation:

And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. Acts 27:20

The dire situation only made one man on the ship to dig a little deeper. We are told the Apostle Paul disappeared in a prayer closet to get ahold of God, the God who controls the wind and the sea (Acts 27:21-24; Mar 4:37-41).

At the end, all men on the ship survived and made it safely to land. What saved the men who could not swim? Broken boards and wooden pieces of the ship. As long as you hold on to a piece of something that is a part of something much bigger than your situation, you will make it (and Jesus is bigger than whatever situation you may find yourself in). They refused to give up and fought for what remained, even if what remained seemed so insignificant!

Four Lepers Decide To Fight For What Was Left

And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? 2Kings 7:3

The city of Samaria was under siege by the king of Syria and a great famine fell upon the city (II Kings 6:24-33). The Word of God pans the scene for us and brought into focus are four lepers standing at the gate of the city, a city surrounded by a looming cloud of death. They pondered their situation to decide the next course of action. The entire city is starving, and these men not only are hungry, but their bodies are ravaged with leprosy.

What would you do in this situation?  What could possibly be worse than dying a slow death of leprosy? You are right – either die of starvation or die a quick and painful death by the hands of a cruel Syrian army. So, they decided to go for the gold, live to see another day, and headed out to the Syrian camp to find provisions (II Kings 7:5). And as they say, the rest is history.

Sometimes in life we just have to “go for the gold”, sell out, and head towards the enemy’s camp to take back what he’s stolen from us. Risky business? You bet it is. Does it put your life on the line? Absolutely. And what are the potential rewards? God will put the enemy’s head under your feet and you will find yourself in a very, very good position with the Almighty (Psa 18:37-40, 47:3; Rom 16:20). Fight for what remains, even if the faith you possess is threadbare and frail. Someone said that one small thread in the hand of God is stronger than all the chains of hell!

Will You Fight For What Remains?

The Word of God tells us that we are made overcomers by two things – the covering of the blood of Jesus Christ and living a victorious life of faith:

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Rev 12:11

What does this mean? It means consistently coming before the Lord in repentance (the blood covering) and living a faith-driven life, energized by the love of God (a steadfast testimony) are the ingredients needed for living an overcoming life. The blood of Jesus and the love of God will take you through things and enable you to “fight for what remains”.

You may be securing and protecting a postage-sized patch of earth beneath your feet that the enemy of your soul is vying for, fight for what remains!

You may be the only one in your family “living for God”, fight for what remains!

A loved one is fighting for their life and only a miracle of healing can change the situation. Love heals. And God is love. And His love never fails, fight for what remains!

You may be in a hopeless situation with nowhere to go nor anyone left that emphasizes with your dilemma. You have breath in your lungs and Jesus still answers prayer, fight for what remains!

The devil salivates over the prospect of shipwrecking your faith to cause you to give up on God. But His “still small voice” is speaking into your darkness: “I love you!”. Fight for what remains!

Fight for what remains. Love remains. For God is love. (I John 4:8, 16)

In Jesus’ Name, Amen!