Confront and Conquer: The Warrior’s Resolve

Kim Crabill: Hello everyone and welcome back to Strengthen Your Walk. I’m Kim Crabill.

Watch Confront and Conquer with Kim Crabill

Casey Gomes: And I’m Casey Gomes.

Kim: Thank you for joining us for this series, “Confront and Conquer.” Providing biblical principles to reveal, revive, and restore the warrior inside you.

Casey: We know that every warrior — even the great ones — are not going to win every battle. Not everything you attempt, not everything that I attempt, is going to work out just like we have planned. And that can be very frustrating for me. I don’t know for anyone like me, but when it doesn’t work out the way I planned, it’s hard.

You’ll face discouragement, doubt, delays, and it will seem that sometimes even God has left your side. And you might be wondering, “Where are you, God?”

It’s important to know that it’s because in those times we must have something that keeps us moving forward and keeps us from going forward instead of retreating or retaliating or taking a different course. We must have decided in our mind what we’re going to do and stick to it even when times get hard.

Kim: Absolutely! You have to know plan B or plan C. And have that lodged in your mind. That’s why throughout the study we’ve given you chunks of wisdom with ways to memorize it. Because memorizing the Word is what we go back to, to stand on. And it will speak to us. Remember we talked how the Word is alive and active and it will meet us where we need it most. But we also have to have these principles, God’s principles in our heart and our mind.

One of my favorites is the story of Peter in the Gospel of Luke. And I use this so much. I actually even have this around my house in many places, because it’s Peter’s resolve. Because like Casey said, there are gonna be days when you’re going to do like Paul. Remember Paul said, “I don’t even know what I’m doing. I’m not even doing what I want to do. And I’m not doing what I want to do and I’m doing what I don’t want to do.”

We have moments like that. So, what do we do? How do we come back? How do we not spiral out of control and be able to catch ourselves and get us back in alignment with God’s Word?

Do you remember Peter? He was a professional fisherman. We read in the Gospel of Luke that he had been fishing all night and he’d caught nothing. Now you know what that’s like as a businessman when you go for it and nothing. Right?

Casey: I’ve been here all day, all night. What’s going on? To keep the pun, when will the tide change? Will it change? I’ve been at this for a long time.

Kim: That’s right. Well, imagine Peter and you put yourself in those shoes. And he was exhausted. He’d been working all night. This was his profession. Then Jesus shows up and Jesus had an unexpected request for him. Now, Jesus was a carpenter by trade we know, but He instructs Peter, “Peter, go out there into the deep water and try again.”

Go for the catch. We can just imagine what’s going through Peter’s mind. I’m sure he’s exhausted.

Casey: “What’s this carpenter doing here? This isn’t even your job. You’re not even good at this. Who are you to tell me to go how to fish?”

Kim: Right. And he’s thinking, “What if I do this? I could ruin my reputation. My occupation’s at stake”. There’s so many things. Out of those 45,000 thoughts that we talked about earlier in the session, all of those thoughts are … how do we capture and control those thoughts and get ourselves back to what God is saying to us with the briefcase or whatever’s before us today.

What I love so much here is that you can almost crawl into Peter’s thinking. You can see the struggle, but Peter comes to something. It’s so magnificent that I want to share with you today and I want you to consider because when he looked at Jesus — when he really looked at Jesus, when he really saw who was asking him — he looked up to Jesus. It’s recorded I think in Luke 5. Seven words that you can use with your briefcase. Seven words we can use with anything when God is asking us to use when we’re doubting. Seven words that have the power to change our lives. Peter responded, “But because you said so, I will.” So, his love for the Lord not only gave him the courage to open that briefcase but to do something with it. You know, to go back out into the waters and fish.

Casey: Yeah. I’ve found as I’ve gotten older this has been the biggest change in my prayers — that when things get more difficult that’s when I have real conversations with God. Sometimes it’s this, “I’m gonna read the Bible. I’m gonna pray.” Then other times when I’m struggling I’m like, “Alright, what’s up?” I talk to Him more like a friend. This is not what I want. I know you got a plan but it’s that real talk. And that’s what we’ll say to you.

As you’re looking in your briefcase or looking at this, what are some of those times in your life that have come up where you’ve thought this isn’t going the way that I want, this isn’t what I intended? How we respond in those moments is really important. That’s where I think those conversations with God and those prayer moments become really important. And maybe it’s Scripture or maybe it’s just putting the Scripture down while you’re praying and saying, “Hey what’s next? This isn’t what I thought it was going to be. Where are we going?” It can really be freeing in a way.

Kim: Yes, and when He responds in a way that you don’t want Him to respond, it’s like, “Oh, I’ll do anything but that.” It’s an act of obedience. Don’t you think? And that’s what we see in Peter. Peter’s love for Jesus propelled him to do what he would’ve otherwise never even thought about doing. So, I pose that question to all of us today. What about you?

You have seen a lot in this series. What is it that God is asking you to do that maybe you’ve tried over and over again? Maybe it’s addiction. Maybe it’s forgiveness. Maybe it’s walking through that past and really being able to use it. Whatever it is as God comes to you again and asks you to dive into the deep, go deeper into whatever it is will we use those seven words? Will you use those seven words: but because you said so, I will?

Remember friend, you can’t conquer what you don’t confront. But if you confront it, God has already promised that you can conquer it through Him. Let’s hold onto that as we think this week about those things that God is asking us to do once again and using those seven words.

Thank you for joining us. We pray that this “Confront and Conquer” series will strengthen your walk.

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