Sometimes you don’t choose the fight – the fight chooses you. When I was in elementary school, I got into a fight. The class was bullied by a girl named Jean who had a bowl haircut. She just brought fear with her everywhere she went. Finally one day I said, “You know what?” Me with my cute little press-n-curl, which is when your hair is really curly and tight, said, “Today, Jean is about to meet her match.” I said to her, “It’s not fair that you’re bullying everybody.” And then I don’t know what came over me, but I hit her. For a moment I felt proud of myself, but before I could blink she popped me back so hard I literally saw stars. But I got back up. Sometimes in life, we get knocked down from marriage problems, knocked down from stress in school, and knocked down from our dreams being delayed. But in this moment, God’s saying, “Girl, it’s time to get your fight back.”
God’s not done. He wants you to stay standing and hold your position. I don’t know what you’re fighting in your mind; I don’t know what you’re fighting from your past; but God wants to fight on the inside of you. So keep persevering so that you’re not completely knocked out. He wants you to bounce back. We are crowned for the fight. Some of us were born into a fight. Some of us have to face fights that we didn’t plan or pray for. But remember, “You have come to a royal position for such a time as this.”
I think about my beautiful friend Jennifer, mama of little Isabella. Jennifer fights every single day for her little girl. She goes to more doctors’ appointments than she even shares with me and has visited the ER more than she would ever desire. But despite all of this, she knows that she is crowned for a fight. Every single time she opens her mouth she’s speaking praise; she’s speaking blessing; and she’s speaking faith. She didn’t choose this fight for her little girl, but she has embraced the fight and is standing her ground. I am praying and fighting with her. She knows that she is crowned for the fight.
I think about another one of my friends, Lauren Kuehn. A couple of years ago, she was diagnosed with cancer and was crowned for her fight. She was fighting that battle with every single ounce of energy within her. I was fighting for her and fighting with her. If you spent two seconds around her, you never felt sorry for her. Your faith would have been encouraged and you would have been energized because she knew she was crowned for the fight. Although her story didn’t end the way I had believed and prayed for, I’m forever marked by her fighting spirit. She didn’t choose that fight. She didn’t want cancer to be her story, but she dusted her gloves off and said, “Bring it on devil. What do you have for me now?”
One day during her journey with cancer, a few of us went to lunch for her birthday and this is what she said: “I don’t want any presents. I just want to speak life and God’s word into our hearts.” So we sat at the table and she spoke life into each one of us. She spoke to our futures; she spoke to our potential; she spoke to the call of God upon our lives. She was a mom of four who was engaged in her own fight, yet she was still calling out the fight in all of us. She knew she was crowned for the fight. So I want to encourage you that no matter what battle you’re facing, God knows what it is and He wants to wake up the fight in you and inspire you to be all that He has called you to be.
Oneka McClellan appears on LIFE TODAY this Tuesday. This is an excerpt from Born Of A Woman by Oneka McClellan. Copyright ©2019 by Oneka McClellan. Used by permission.
