Fight The Good Fight

Send "Fight the good fight with all thy might" Ringtone to your Cell Fight the good fight with all thy might! Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right; Lay hold on life, and it shall be Thy joy and crown eternally. Run the straight race through God's good grace, Lift up thine eyes, and seek His face; Life with its way before us lies, Christ is the path, and Christ the prize. Cast care aside, lean on thy Guide; His boundless mercy will provide; Trust, and thy trusting soul shall prove Christ is its life, and Christ its love. Faint not nor fear, His arms are near, He changeth not, and thou art dear; Only believe, and thou shalt see That Christ is all in all to thee.end "Fight the good fight with all thy might" Ringtone to your Cell This old hymn was used at the Sunday morning service on June 28th as one of the readings came from St Paul's stirring farewell to Timothy summed up in his testimony that Paul had "fought the good fight". (It was a St Peter's day being celebrated but St Paul provided an appropriate companion-saint while bearing in mind that all the redeemed in Christ are saints.) The old hymns are quick to remind us that life is a fight, a struggle against "the world, the flesh and the devil". We often forget this today and when trouble afflicts us we wonder why when we have done this faithfully and that industriously, why it is that we are afflicted. However, it has always been so with Christians. The old saints knew that nothing we can do acts as a talisman or charm to ward off evil. All the evil that befalls urges us to flee to Christ as in the third and fourth stanzas above (which almost brought me to tears on Sunday).

Growing Faith

The Markan pericope found in 4.35-41 can be viewed as a story about the issue of faith. Probably that's the way it should be seen given that the disciples lack of faith is what Jesus focussed immediately upon after he stilled the waters and winds. But what is this lack of faith about?

The disciples had seen Jesus do some mighty miracles and so they had faith in him to do such things. But their faith was being tested in a new arena, the arena in which some of them earned their living fishing, in the area of what is called "nature". Their fear took the form of chiding the sleeping Jesus with failing to show any care towards the danger of their perishing by drowning. They failed to understand that if Jesus was with them then nothing ultimately bad could befall them. The boat may even founder but they would be "saved" because he was their salvation.

I choose to believe that as these disciples experienced Jesus as Lord of wind, water and storm, their faith in him also expanded. I also believe that as we walk with him on our journey, our faith will be expanded as we go through the various stations of life with their ever-increasing difficulties. Every trial is an opportunity for greater growth in God.