Who doesn’t love a good action movie? A fight of good versus evil to the bitter end with the good guy coming out on top! We see it all the time, especially with every new comic book movie that comes out in theaters. We love the lone hero who stands up against the supervillain, the corrupt government, or the evil billionaire set on corporate domination and greed! The really good stories make us want to be heroes ourselves.

    

But we can easily forget just how hard it is to stand up for what it right. That fighting against evil is not easy, to put it mildly. People, especially those who dare to do the right thing, get hurt. They can face great difficulties and hardships and oftentimes they feel that they are the only one who is taking a stand.

 

Obviously, none of us are ever likely to be called on to singlehandedly save the world from an alien invasion, a villain with superpowers, or the army of thugs hired by an evil billionaire out to control the city. But we have been called upon to fight the evil the reigns in our world. God calls us to very specific battles in our lives. We’re not fighting evil people, though it may often feel that way. Rather, we are fighting Satan and his army of thugs (Ephesians 6:12), who use lies to dupe people into thinking they don’t need God, that their way is the best way, or any other of a hundred lies that our sinful hearts want to believe.

 

But in our best efforts, we often get hurt to our very core; a broken heart, a broken spirit, and often a broken will. Many of us know in our heads that God has won the ultimate victory (I Corinthians 15:57), but that doesn’t necessarily assuage the pain and agony we experience at the hands of the enemy; a child who has turned their back on their faith; an unfaithful spouse; the death of an infant to an unstoppable disease. We feel alone. We’re devastated. We want to quit. We may cry out in our anguish, “What’s the point!?”

The point is, we don’t know who is watching and we don’t know how God maybe using our faithfulness, regardless of how we feel, to inspire and motivate others. In Galatians 6:9, Paul says, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Those are hard words to live by. But they are very important words, especially that last phrase, “…do not give up.” When all we can think about is throwing in the towel, do not give up! When we feel we’re being attacked by those closest to us, do not give up! God’s Word promises that “in due season we will reap”. Often the issue is, we don’t know if the things we’re working to “harvest” are in their season yet. We don’t know how close we are to victory!

 

We can easily get caught up in the wonder and excitement of those superheroes from the movies and the cool powers they have, and forget the pain and loss that they fought through. But I think that more than anything, the true “power” of those superheroes, and that of all real world heroes, is their commitment to the cause. They did not give up standing for and fighting for what is right.

 

So whatever battle you find yourself in, do not give up! Your victory may be just around the corner and, after all, you don’t know who may be watching your own hero’s story!