Nobody, breathing at least, could ever say how long the fight of all fights lasted on that mountaintop.
Certainly, no breathing being could even tell you what fighting style each combatant employed.
But in the parlance of the streets back where I come from: You could bet that set-to was a humdinger.
And Jesus, going toe-to-toe, hand-to-hand and whatever else, with Satan and death arose the victor, the champ over the dark domain.
But again in those crusty New York street terms, no matter how it may have appeared at times to a breather’s eye, Jesus was always the odds-on favorite to win that struggle.
Come on, He’s, after all, the Son of God.
And He was on a mission from His Father: Beat down Satan and death and thereby save the Father’s creations.
In the doing, the Champ endeared Himself to a lot of hearts.
He also never forgot that Satan wouldn’t waste any time licking his wounds before he’d spoil for another set-to.
And he would, as usual, use us weak, breathing souls as objects of his fight campaign.
However, Jesus couldn’t stay for a rematch.
He had to be with His Father.
But He said it Himself: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever” (John 14:16).
And what a gift.
The Holy Spirit is exactly what we need in this cruel, hard devil-driven world until Jesus returns to take us all away for good.
I love the way the Spirit operates.
He mainly protects us from our weak selves and Satan.
And take it from any Christian, the Holy Spirit has it all covered.
Like recently, my trusty scooter’s battery power reading is near zero and I haven’t got a penny in my pocket.
I’m searching for an ATM and a way into my favorite baseball team’s home stadium where I’ve promised to get my grandson to see the first pitch.
But all he and I seem to confront on the ballpark grounds are fences and raised concrete steps too high for my scooter to navigate.
A voice in one side of my head – from Satan – tells me: “Get mad at these attendants and loudly curse them for all this inconvenience.”
But a voice in the other side of my brain says: “Don’t do that Ozzie. Just smile and calmly ask one of the attendants for assistance.
With that voice also comes a sense of something inside forcing smiles out of me.
The next I knew after my first smile at an attendant, my grandson and I are in our seats, munching on a Dodger dog and a pretzel, with a concession stand and an ATM directly behind us.
My Scooter charger is plugged into a convenient outlet and our favorite team is scoring almost at will in its half of the first inning.
I, of course, am persuaded that my inner voice with the magical inside touch and the wondrous advice about a smile is straight from the Holy Spirit.
And that’s just one small part of how He rolls in my life at times.
Thank you Jesus.
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
Ozzie Roberts
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