SHOW UP FOR THE FIGHT

For our Victory as Christians we have to get into the ring

Imagine you are a boxer and you have a title fight, but the good thing about this fight, is that the fight is fixed. You have the guarantee that you will win the fight and that has gotten you so excited. You go off announcing to all your friends how you are the champion and how your opponent does not stand a chance. In the midst of all the announcing and the celebration, you lose track of time and you end up not showing for the fight. In your absence you end up forfeiting the fight and though you had the guarantee of winning because the fight was fixed, you end up losing the fight.
How do you lose a fixed fight? It is like doing an exam that already had all the answers marked out but you still don’t make the pass mark.

Joshua 6:2-5

The LORD said to Joshua: With my help, you and your army will defeat the king of Jericho and his army, and you will capture the town. Here is how to do it: March slowly around Jericho once a day for six days.
Take along the sacred chest and have seven priests walk in front of it, carrying trumpets. But on the seventh day, march slowly around the town seven times while the priests blow their trumpets.
Then the priests will blast on their trumpets, and everyone else will shout. The wall will fall down, and your soldiers can go straight in from every side.

The children of Israel are just about to begin possessing the land the the Lord promised their fore father Abraham. God tells them that the city is theirs to take, He has already given them the strategy, and it is a done deal.
What do you think would have happened had the Israelites not showed up for the fight?
The walls of Jericho would have remained standing.

God had done his part and now the Israelite had their part to do, they have to go in there and fight. Many of us are losing a battle that we have a guarantee to win because we are not showing up for the fight. We expect to walk around out Jericho, shout, the walls come tumbling down and as soon as that happens, the inhabitants of Jericho take off and leave everything to us. That is not what happened when Joshua was given the guarantee over Jericho
Joshua 6:20
The priests blew their trumpets again, and the soldiers shouted as loud as they could. The walls of Jericho fell flat. Then the soldiers rushed up the hill, went straight into the town, and captured it.
They killed everyone, men and women, young and old, everyone except Rahab and the others in her house. They even killed every cow, sheep, and donkey.

Now, do you think that the inhabitants of Jericho just stood by and waited for the Israelites to come by and kill them? I don’t think so. They must have fought back and tried to defend themselves. I am sure that in the process some of the Israelites must have gotten some injuries.
 
Yes God has given us the victory and we have the assurance of the outcome of the fight, but that does not mean that we don’t show up for the fight. We have to show up, and not only that, we have to fight and in the process we will have some blows rained on us, but in the end we have the assurance of victory.