Suppose that when you went to work on Monday you informed your employer that you were quitting your job to pursue a career in boxing. Over the next year you prepared yourself for your first fight. You had trained relentlessly and had taking lessons from the great fighters of boxing. You now felt confident and ready to step into the ring. The day of your first fight arrives and the ring announcer having introduced you now introduces your opponent, "…and in this corner—God." I do not know you about you; but I would know right then and there that this fight would be the first and only fight of my boxing career. Nobody would be able to enter into a physical confrontation with God and emerge as the winner. Notice what Abijah would tell Jeroboam and the nation of Israel,

And, behold, God himself is with us for our captain, and his priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you. O children of Israel, fight ye not against the LORD God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper (II Chronicles 13:12).

We all recognize the fact that we would not be able to enter into a physical confrontation with God and emerge victorious. Yet so many people, who though they realize they could not win a physical battle with God, are trying to win a spiritual battle with Him. Whether it is a physical or spiritual battle with God, the result will always be the same, "ye shall not prosper"

Today people pit themselves against God when they seek to render obedience to teachings of men rather than the teachings of God. It is only when one renders obedience to God’s Word is he able to whole and complete (II Tim. 3:16,17; Eccl. 12:13). On the other handing render obedience to the teaching of men is vain (Mt. 15:9) and causes one to head down a road of destruction (Prov. 14:13). We are either friends of God or enemies of God. And whether we fall into the first category or the latter is dependent upon our response to God’s Word. Abraham is called the friend of God (James 2:23) and the reason he is called this can be seen by reading James 2:21,22 and Gen. 22:1-12—Abraham obeyed God. Jesus would tell His disciples, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you" (John 15:14) When a person today follows the teachings of God, he too can be called a friend of God.

Are you fighting against God? You are if your substituting the teachings of men in the place of the teachings of God. May we seek to be a friend of God by humbly render obedience to His Word. "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed" (James 1:25).

Mike Gurganus
PO Box 916
Henderson, NC 27536