Somebody once said, “Any old dead fish could swim downstream, but it takes a live one to swim upstream.” The reason is, going upstream takes effort.
You have to overcome the downward resistance of the water current working against you; you have to deal with a certain volume of water; and, of course, you have to fight against the speed of the current. Likewise, an automobile transmission in neutral will not move the vehicle forward, but rather just spins its gears unless they are engaged.
All of this is similar to our Christian walk. Unless we make an effort, we cannot swim upstream, and unless we are engaged, we are just spinning our gears with no forward motion.
It is really important to focus on the reason why we are called today in the first place, in order to stay engaged. Were we called only to save our own skins? Not at all.
You might want to consider Christ’s words in Luke 21:36: “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” This verse has to be balanced with something else Christ said in Mark 8:35: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
A soldier engaged in an intense battle with the enemy is more concerned with defeating and overcoming that enemy than saving his own skin. He is focused on achieving the purpose for his fighting; and that is, to win against and conquer his enemy.
As true Christians, we are not to fight in war, but we still have a purpose to fulfill. As soldiers of Christ, we must preach and publish the gospel (good news) of the future Kingdom of God and to utter a warning to a deceived and dying world. At that same time, we must keep ourselves unspotted from the world and defeat our spiritual enemy–Satan the devil and his demonic forces.
If our focus is only to save our own skin, then we could lose our salvation in the process. This is a serious matter.
Every Christian is engaged in a deadly battle against Satan’s efforts to thwart the Work of God. The more he can delay, slow down or impede the process of preaching the gospel, the longer he maintains his deceptive rule over this world.
Our focus and desire should be to shorten his reign as the current god of this age. The big question is, are we engaged in the process to help make this happen, or are we like dead fish, floating downstream, or with the transmission in neutral?
We always have a choice. Let us choose to be fully engaged in doing the Work of the Eternal God.
