It is a fight to believe the promises of God. The fight we fight is to believe those promises made to us in the Word of God even when we can’t see those promises.
Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize—a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion]. AMPC
Jesus said it is a violent force to seize the Kingdom of God. That those who sought it went after it as a precious prize. Why? Because they could see.
Jesus said this in response to John being offended at Him because he was in jail. John prepared the way for the Lord, his life story started out good, but ended not so good because he became offended at Jesus.
Matthew 11:2 Now when John in prison heard about the activities of Christ, he sent a message by his disciples 3 And asked Him, Are You the One Who was to come, or should we keep on expecting a different one? 4 And Jesus replied to them, Go and report to John what you hear and see:5 The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed (by healing) and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have good news (the Gospel) preached to them.6 And blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) is he who takes no offense at Me and finds no cause for stumbling in or through Me and is not hindered from seeing the Truth.
Jesus answered John by saying blessed is the one who takes no offense at Me, finds no cause for stumbling, from seeing the truth. In other words Jesus was saying don’t get offended in the situation you are in for My cause, don’t let your temporary situation cause you to stumble, or to quit and give up which will also cause you hindrance in seeing what is truth, what is real.
John was obviously offended at Jesus because he was in jail. If he wasn’t offended he would have rather sent a message to Jesus asking for help.
As today the same is true for us, if we are humble we will ask Jesus to help us, but if we are offended we prove to quit and go back to our old life. Proving our lives are all about us which proves then we are prideful. No wonder God hates pride, if we are all about ourselves then how can He help us. If we take care of our own cares then we eliminate Him from doing so.
Even though John was offended and suffered for his offence, Jesus grieved for him because Jesus loved Him. God is all about us, His mind is steadfast on us. God cares about what we care about, which also means when we hurt He hurts. What if we cared for God that way? What if we cared so much for Him that we cared about what He cared about? Then would we be so easily offended at our circumstance or would we ask Him the plan? Would we humble ourselves and care about what He might be feeling and ask rather than accuse?
I am sure God’s plan for John wasn’t as it happened. I am sure God had a good plan and we can know that by knowing Him.
Jesus said My burden is light when we come to Him. John could have changed how his life ended just by humbling himself and seeking for Jesus‘ help instead of being offended.
Either we will be for Jesus or against Him, agree with Him or disagree. We have to decide. Even if things don‘t see fair, even if we are persecuted for His cause we have to stay in that humbled place to know He knows the plan He has for us and that the outcome is good.
When we live for Jesus we should expect to be persecuted, Jesus said that. But if we get offended at Jesus because things didn’t go the way we thought, then we missed it, we gave up the fight and believed our circumstances rather than His promise.
Let me encourage you not to get offended and quit, but to fight to live in the Kingdom of God, fight to know Him and trust Him. Then you will go after, you will take the Kingdom of God by force because you will be able to see. You will see that that your temporary circumstance is not how your story will end, but your story will end in that you knew God, and His promises to you.