Do not gloat over me, my enemy!
Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be my light.
Micah 7:8

Read: Micah 7:7-20, James 4:4-17
Pilgrim’s Progress: Stage 4 Part 3

Relate: In his frustration that the conversation is not progressing as he would like, Apollyon cries out his hatred for the Lord. Christian then warns him, “Beware of what you do, for I am on the King’s Highway: way of holiness.” Of course, the enemy will then respond to that with the flaming arrows of temptation. The devil always attacks us at the point of our testimony. Christian uses the shield of faith against this onslaught of arrows. He deflects most, but not all. He is wounded in his head, his hand, and his foot. You could say that he has fallen to temptation in what he thinks, what he does, and where he goes. Each time he took another wound, he grew weaker. Every time we fall to sin, it becomes harder to resist the next temptation.

Finally, Christian has fallen. The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, has slipped from his hand. This is why it is so important not only to have our Bible with us, but to get it in us. Apollyon thought the battle was over. So did Christian. But Christian grabs for that sword one more time and quotes the verse from Micah seen above. “Though I have fallen, yet will I rise.” After dealing Apollyon a heavy blow, Christian then quotes Romans 8, “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” As Christian resisted the enemy, so he did flee.

React: When I think of spiritual warfare, I am often thinking of hard-fought, night-long battles of intercession where I, or we, are praying through the night, asking God to intervene in a seemingly impossible situation. Then we pray through sometimes for days, other times for years, until we see God answer. Don’t get me wrong, God does work like this at times. But this is not the spiritual warfare John Bunyan describes. In Pilgrim’s Progress, the warfare is a near-total collapse on Christian’s part. He resists, but not totally. Not perfectly. He grows weaker, he fails, and he falls. But even in his failure, even in his falling, he doesn’t stop the struggle.

How many times, at the first moment of failure, have we given up? How many times has our struggle with sin ended the moment we actually sinned? “I tried. I really wanted to do better. But I failed. What is the use?” Have you ever thought or said words like these in your struggle and seeming failure to resist? Wherever you are in your walk with God, whatever your current situation, no matter how far you might feel from God, let me encourage you. If you are still breathing, the battle isn’t over. Keep fighting.

Respond:

Dear God,
God, I need You. I have struggled. I have resisted. And I have failed. I have fallen. But Word has promised that though the righteous man falls seven times, You will raise him up again. Though I have fallen, yet will I rise. For Your grace is still greater than all of my sin. Forgive me. Restore me. And help me to keep fighting until I have reached my final destination.
Amen