I admit it. I love a good, inspirational, sports movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baseball\u2026The Natural
Football\u2026Invincible
Basketball\u2026Hoosiers
Hockey\u2026Miracle
Track\u2026Chariots of Fire<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And boxing\u2026well, I\u2019ll take Cinderella Man over Rocky in an upset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recently, I found myself watching, once again, the rags to riches true story of boxer James J. Braddock, set in the Great Depression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Braddock was an underdog, battling, against all odds, versus a seemingly invincible opponent.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cThe skinny from the reporters at ringside is that Braddock won’t last two rounds.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cBraddock has the look of a man trying to hold back an avalanche.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Do you ever feel that way in your battle against sin in our lives?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re told to abstain from fleshly lusts (1 Peter 2:11), mortify the deeds of the body (Rom. 8:13), flee immorality (1 Cor. 6:18), put off the old man (Eph. 4:22), to buffet our bodies to bring them into subjection (1 Cor. 9:27), to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh (2 Cor. 7:1) and lay aside all bitterness, anger, and malice (Eph. 4:31).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While most Christians know and believe these commands, if we are honest, at times, it feels like an unwinnable bout against the flesh.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what are we to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The words below from 17th<\/sup> century Puritan Richard Alleine scream to us, like a boxing trainer in our corner, \u201cGet up off the canvas, keep your gloves up and fight on!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nLord, you know. I cannot rid myself of the iniquity in my heart, I cannot do the things that I would, I cannot pray as I would. I cannot listen as I would\u2014nor think, nor speak, nor live as I would. <\/em><\/p>\n
Wherever I go, sin goes with me. Where I stay, it stays. If I sit still, there it is with me. If I run from it, it follows me. I cannot rest, I cannot work, I cannot do anything\u2014sin is always hounding me. <\/em><\/p>\n
And yet, blessed be your name, this I do: I fight against it. I wrestle with it, though it so often takes me down. I do not trust it, though it flatters me. I do not love it, though it feeds me. <\/em><\/p>\n
My heart is with you, Lord. I am following after you. I groan and I struggle in pain, waiting for your redemption. Until I die, I will not give up. <\/em><\/p>\n
I will die fighting. I will die hoping. I will die praying. <\/em><\/p>\n
Save me, Lord. Do not delay, my God. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I admit it. I love a good, inspirational, sports movie. Baseball\u2026The NaturalFootball\u2026InvincibleBasketball\u2026HoosiersHockey\u2026MiracleTrack\u2026Chariots of Fire And boxing\u2026well, I\u2019ll take Cinderella Man over Rocky in an upset. Recently, I found myself watching, once again, the rags to riches true story of boxer James J. Braddock, set in the Great Depression. Braddock was an underdog, battling, against all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-living"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/blog-fight-on-600x300.png","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/blog-fight-on-600x300.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Kent Husted","author_link":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/author\/khusted\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}