As children of God, our life will be full of difficulties and great challenges that will lead us to conquer great blessings, however, many never reach them because fear stops them, sometimes we do not know what is a spiritual challenge and how to face it. Theodore Roosevelt once said: “It is much better to face great challenges and aspire to glorious triumphs, even risking losing, than to join the ranks of the mediocre, who never rejoice or suffer too much, because they live in a gray penumbra, without victories or defeats.”
What is a spiritual challenge?
It is understood by defied a challenge or competition, that is, when there is a certain type of rivalry to provoke others. All people set goals in life. There are difficult objectives to achieve them require a great effort on our part. In the same way, in the spiritual world there are also challenges, challenges, objectives or even better purposes that we must fulfill, which leads us to understand what a challenge is and how to approach it in the spiritual realm.
How to face the challenges for my spiritual growth
(2 Kings 6:14-17)“Then the king sent there horsemen, and chariots, and a great army, which came by night, and besieged the city. And the man who served the man of God rose early and went out, and behold, the army that had the city besieged, with horsemen and chariots. Then his servant said to him: Ah, my lord! What will we do? He said to him: Do not be afraid, because there are more who are with us than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, I beg you, O Lord, that you open his eyes so that he may see then the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he looked; And, behold, the mountain was full of horsemen and chariots of fire around Elisha.”
I invite you to read: What is the Lord’s Supper and how does it influence our spiritual life?
This biblical passage recounts the occasion when the king of Syria, annoyed because Elisha revealed all his movements and attack strategy to the king of Israel, sent for him to kill him. So the Syrian army besieges the city where he lived and we are taught how to deal with such challenging situations.
1. To face challenges we must not be intimidated by them.
As human beings we quickly tend to settle for the level we have and we generally get used to it, since we don’t like to complicate our lives and face what is a challenge. However, sooner or later challenges arise and we must have the right attitude to face them.
“Then his servant said to him: Ah, my lord! What will we do?…”
The first thing we have to do when facing a challenging situation is not to let ourselves be frightened by it. Elisha’s servant was paralyzed with fear when he saw that the city was besieged by the great army of Syria.
Many times they can come to our lives terrible situations, bad news, problems that threaten even our safety, but in the face of such things, how do we react? Many give themselves up to despair, others resign themselves to living suffering, others flee and murmur against God for what happens to them. But the first key to face a situation like this is: Do not fear and Eliseo teaches how to do it
2. To face the challenges we must fully trust God.
“He said to him: Do not be afraid, because there are more who are with us than those who are with them.”
To face what is a challenge correctly we must place our full trust in God. Elisha’s words express it as follows: Do not have fear, because plus are the ones with us than those who are with them.
our faith is directly related to our victoryjust read the Bible to see how many men and women achieved great victories in their lives through their faith in the true God. Our Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples how decisive it is for a Christian to have faith:
(Mark 11:22-24)“Jesus answered and said to them, Have faith in God. For verily I tell you that whoever says to this mountain: Get off and throw yourself into the sea, and will not doubt in his heart, but will believe that what he says will be done, what he says will be done to him. Therefore, I tell you that whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it, and it will come to you.”
The clue it is in not doubting that God will do everything we ask him in prayer according to his will and Elisha knew this glorious truth.
3. To face challenges we must constantly pray.
“And Elisha prayed…” Once we fully believe in the power of God, In the face of the great challenges of our life we must turn in prayer.
When considering the history of great men and women who have passed through this land we can find a common element in their lives: they had a life of prayer.
We can see how Elisha always went to prayer to solve his problems. He first prayed that his servant’s eyes of faith would be opened: “I beseech you, O Lord, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the eyes of the servant, and he looked; and, behold, the mountain It was full of people on horseback and chariots. fire around Elisha.
All of us should pray that God will open our spiritual eyes and see things from his perspective. Many times problems and difficulties discourage us because we see them from our point of view, which is imperfect and limited. However, we need to see it from God’s point of view and know that it is not us who fight our battles but His. Holy Spirit.
Apart from that Elisha also prayed specifically for the problem he was having: “after the Syrians came down to itElisha prayed to the Lord, and said: (2 Kings 6:18)”I beg you to blindly smite these people. And he smote them with blindness, according to Elisha’s request.” Like Elisha, we must constantly go to prayer so that God answers our requests, only then can we be sure that we will achieve success and emerge victorious from all our challenges.
In order to correctly face the challenges and win we need:
- Drive away all kinds of fear and not be intimidated by challenges.
- Trust fully in God.
- Pray constantly for God to move his hand in favor of us.
We can and must learn to grow, even through the attacks of the spiritual enemy. Do you remember Jesus when he was taken by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil? The evil one did not fully believe the 40-day fasting of the Lord and he had illusions based on the supposed weaknesses of the human condition of that carpenter from Nazareth who claimed to be the Son of Man. The Apostle Peter reminds us: (1 Peter 5:8) “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour”
I recommend you read: 7 Characteristics Of The Blood Of Jesus Spilled On The Cross And Its Meaning.