Fixing The Fight
I remember when I was younger, my youth group leader told a story about a farmer and his 2 dogs, one white dog and one black dog. Every Saturday, the farmer would take his dogs to the dog fight in town. People would place bets on which dog would win. Sometimes the black one would win, sometimes the white one would win, but the farmer always won. People kept asking him how he did it until he finally revealed his secret. All week long, he would feed one dog and starve the other. Whichever dog he fed was always the winner.
As I was contemplating what to write, I was telling Pastor Sam that writing doesn’t come as easy for me as it once did. When I was in school, sometimes we’d have to write creatively for assignments. Since I had to do it anyway, I made my stories funny just to entertain myself and I found out my teachers were usually entertained by them, as well. Somewhere along the way, I stopped writing so much and my creative side become overshadowed by my analytical/logical side because that was the side of my brain that I was using the most. That’s the side I was feeding.
There’s always a battle going on within us as Christians. Our flesh is always fighting with our spirit. We want to do good but our flesh wins and we end up sinning anyways. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 7: 14-20:
14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. New American Standard Bible
Just like the farmer that fed one dog while starving the other, we need to starve the flesh and feed the spirit so the spirit can win the fight. We can feed the spirit by reading our Bibles, spending time alone with the Lord in prayer, fasting, and fellowshipping with other believers. We can starve the flesh by being careful what we’re watching, reading, and listening to, choosing the things that glorify the Lord over the things of the world, and avoiding the temptations and desires that we know are not pleasing to Him. We can fix the fight just like the farmer did. It’s up to us to decide which dog is going to win.