When the Battle Brings You to Your Knees

Self-indulgent love is easy.  Love me and I will love you.  But what happens when we are called to love someone that does not reciprocate our love back to us- to include our very own family?  Even worse, what do we do when they instead pay us back with hate?

This is something that I find myself right in the middle of.  

Paul tells us in Ephesians that this fight is not a fight against physical people;  rather it is a battle that is fought in the heavenly  realms: 

For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Ephesians 6:12:

This is one of the hardest battles I have ever had to fight.  For YEARS I have humbled myself and turned the other cheek and have written lengthy letters full of sweet, heart-filled words. I have prayed long-hard prayers pleading that God restore this bruised and bloodied relationship.  But there has been no redemption and no healing- not that I can see.  

So here I am at a place where I feel weary, worn down and downright tired and I want to give up on any hope of a reconciliation.  

Then God’s Spirit gently reminds me that Jesus never gave up on us.  

God tells me in His word and through His crucifixion that true love is worth fighting for; humbly down on our knees in prayer.   

I can try with all my might to make all the wrongs right again, but I know that I only have control over my own thoughts and actions.  Everything else is out of my hands.  Everything else I need to place into the hands of Jesus.  I need to surrender it all knowing that He will work it all out in due time.  I need to trust in Him and know that He is in control.  He will act on my behalf, but I need to be still and know that He is God over everything and everyone.

So I will keep praying and believing and trusting in all that God has spoken.

I will be still with an expectant heart.  And I will fight for love and never give up, because Jesus never gave up on me.

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 

1 Corinthians 13:7