On the Ropes — Ami Loper

It might seem strange. I know it does to me sometimes. I was a frilly little girl, always in love with the twirling dresses with lots of layers and the lacey socks with the shiny shoes. And yet, I would stand for a whole boxing match at my Grandpa’s elbow as he sat in his gigantic rocking chair watching boxing on TV.

Grandpa had been a boxer; he boxed in the Golden Gloves and he knew what he was talking about. He would talk to the boxers as if they could really hear him through the old, boxy TV set, and I would watch them pummeling each other.

One of the saddest things to watch was a man up against the ropes, getting smacked relentlessly until his gloves were at his face and he was bent, cringing from the blows.

That image of a man on the ropes keeps coming to mind in this last couple of years. Many of you can relate.

It’s a helpless feeling to not be able to catch your breath, not be able to recover from one blow before another lands in the most already bruised place. Body blow after body blow crashes while you wonder how to make it just stop. It feels like the downfall of Job as you hope you’ve heard your last bit of bad news and can begin to heal and be restored.

When a weary boxer finds himself on the ropes, there is usually only one option with a good outcome: Go on the offensive.

The only way to go on the offensive is to regain your footing. When a boxer is against the ropes, he is often leaning on the ropes; the ropes are actually holding him up. If he wants to break free from the trap he’s fallen into, he must reset his feet underneath him and lean into the fight.

You are a fighter, a warrior in God’s army. You have more strength than you realize and more determination than you might have thought. God is a warrior maker. He is the one “who trains [your] hands for war, and [your] fingers for battle” (Psalm 144:1). Although He doesn’t inflict evil circumstances on His children, He will wring every bit of benefit from those circumstances in order to make you a stronger warrior.

You may think you want a life of ease, of peace, of calm, unruffled waters (and to be sure, God provides times like that), but God has also called you to walk on waves, to fight the good fight, to put on your armor and do the spiritual warfare that will bring His Kingdom to come in your life and the lives of those you touch.

The abundant life isn’t a life of ease; it’s a life of victory – and that victory comes through standing your ground in a fight.

It’s time to stop wringing your hands over your situation. It’s time to stop leaning on those ropes; it’s time to get your feet underneath you and go on the offensive against the enemy.

Those circumstances have had you against the ropes and being bludgeoned by the enemy for long enough. Find your feet again. Hear the Father coaching you and telling you the truth about your situation. Take that left foot and place it on the word that God has spoken over your situation. Take your right foot and plant it firmly in your identity as a warrior of God. Get your weight off the ropes and onto your firm foundation. Lean into the fight.

Now, it’s time to start pummeling the enemy with your offensive weapon, the Word of God. Tell the enemy what the Truth is and tell him that you win. Keep your guard up by edifying yourself in your faith. This is no time for words of doubt and fear to make you lower your hands in this fight. It’s time to make the enemy pay for his unwarranted attack on you and your family.

Boxing is a bloody and messy illustration for the fight we’re in. It’s also an illustration that falls far short of accurately portraying the severity of what we are facing. A friendly, or even unfriendly, boxing match has rules that both opponents must abide by. Our enemy does not fight fair. He’s not out to win a match; his aim is to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). It’s time we leave off fighting each other and turn our fight to our true enemy and rise up as the warriors trained for this battle and positioned “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).

“For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.” Psalm 18:29 

For more on spiritual warfare, click HERE for the blog titled, “Reprogramming Your Brain.”

And to go deep on this subject, make sure you check out my 3-part video series titled, “Fighting Fire With Fire” by clicking HERE.