We often say, “God is fighting for our prodigals.” I’ve said it more times than I can count, and it may take me a while to stop, but God doesn’t have to fight. He’s constantly working His plan, but He is God. Nothing is a contest to Him. He is omnipotent, omniscient, all-sufficient, and has all authority. He doesn’t need anyone’s permission to answer our prayers, and He doesn’t fight.

He doesn’t fight because He is God Most High. Because He knows everything, He isn’t surprised, and because He has a well laid-out plan for each prodigal, He is never wringing His hands trying to decide what He will do next when we, who are surprised often, run to Him in a panic. You know about those times—those times things happen in our prodigals’ lives that surprise us but not in a good way, and we run to an altar to pray panicked prayers.

Yes, several times in the Old Testament, the Lord told His people He would fight for them, but those instances were because they were going into a physical battle, and the Lord “fought” the enemy for them in the physical battle (see Exodus 14:14; Deuteronomy 1:30, 3:20, et al.) However, it really was no fight for Him at all. So, in every instance, He was the victor!

Of course, He was the victor! It was no contest! Those enemies should not have messed with God’s people!

There is also one instance in the New Testament where Jesus said He would fight: “‘“‘Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth’”’” (Revelation 2:15-16 NKJV).[1] Once again, it was no contest! He fought them with the words of His mouth!

But we fight, as Paul instructed Timothy: “This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare” (1 Timothy 1:18). The “according to the prophecies previously made concerning you” echoes in our praying promises in, covering promises in prayer, and standing on the promises we’ve been given—all ways in which we fight. Another time Paul wrote to him: “Fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). Then, when Paul’s life on earth was almost over, he told Timothy, “I have fought the good fight” (2 Timothy 4:7). There is a biblical platform for our having to fight.

We have to fight, but if we are looking for information in the Word of God about how we fight, there is that one very encouraging verse telling how Paul fought effectively: “Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air” (1 Corinthians 9:26). He fought with purpose and a goal. Our fighting doesn’t have to be empty effort, either, because we, too, can fight with purpose and a goal, following God’s plan, His lead, and His direction, staying righteous before Him and keeping our slate clean.

In fact, the Bible tells us:

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:31-25, 37, emphasis added).

“Who can be against us?” No one! “Who shall bring a charge against” us? No one! “Who … condemns?” No one! Who separates “us from the love of Christ?” No one! The answer is—every time—no one!

What about the times it seems our prayers aren’t answered and no victory is evident? Perhaps we’ve not met the prerequisites for God’s answering our prayers: righteousness and forgiving others. Sometimes it is because we do not ask the Holy Spirit about the will of the Father before we pray, keeping our prayers from matching God’s perfect plan. Sometimes it is because we pray with self-serving motives (James 4:3). What can that look like in our fight? Perhaps we ask for how we want things to be, according to our dreams or plans for them. Perhaps we are so tired and want timing expedited (which is understandable).

So, our best plan is to stick with Him: the One with the plan, the One with the power, the One with the sufficiency, the One with the authority, the One with the wisdom![2] If we stick to following God’s well laid-out plan, we never have to be disappointed—never!—not in people, because they aren’t our hope for our prodigals’ salvation; not in church when we finally get our prodigals there, because the church isn’t our hope for their salvation; not even in our prodigals, because we know God has a well laid-out plan, and we pray and act according to His instructions; and, definitely not in God, because, “As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him. ‘For who is God, except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?’” (2 Samuel 22:31-32; Psalm 18:30-31).

Saying God fights humanizes Him, when He is God with none of the frailties of humanity. He works, but He doesn’t fight.

We fight. He doesn’t have to.

We can be surprised. He can’t.

He is God of all the “but God” situations!

He is King, and He is still—and will always be—on His throne!

---

[1] Yes, all those quotation marks are a first for me but are supposed to be there.

[2] Reading other surrounding verses to these two passages is quite encouraging!