Spiritual battles begin way before the battle begins.

If we are going to win in life, we must understand that the battle is won outside the ring as much as inside the ring. Heavyweight champion Joe Frazier said, “You can map out a fight plan or a life plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you’re down to your reflexes—that means your preparation. That’s where your roadwork shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of the morning, well, you’re going to get found out now, under the bright lights.”

Our fights will simply expose what we have been training for. We must be prepared before we step into the ring. If we take shortcuts and slack off, we will not be able to contend with life’s challenges. You may have heard it said, “When preparation meets opportunity, there is success;” but the opposite, “When procrastination meets opportunity, there is distress,” is true as well.

Think about Noah when he faced God’s ultimate request to build an ark in order to save humanity. God never told Noah when or how the earth would flood. He simply told him to be prepared by building a boat. By faith, Noah had to trust that God was preparing him for something spectacular without knowing any of the details. If Noah procrastinated because of his unbelief, he would have not only lost his own life, but the human race would have been lost as well. If he had waited until the first drop of rain to build the ark, we would not exist today. He prepared for over 100 years by being faithful to build every day.

My wife and I had a time in our life when we felt God was telling us to prepare for a geographical move. We did not know where God was calling us, or even knew how it would play out, but we felt we needed to pack most of our belongings except for the bare essentials. It was a little strange doing this since we had no reason to do this in the natural, but we knew something spiritual was about to happen. A few months later, we received a call that changed our destiny. We were offered a position at a church halfway across the country, and within months, had to make the transition. Had we not been prepared in advance, we wouldn’t have been able to move so quickly. 

Preparing on the front end helps us be victorious on the back end. For example: when someone says or does something that hurts you, it is very hard to forgive that person in the moment. However, if we have already chosen to live with a forgiving mindset, we are prepared for the situation. Jesus chose to offer forgiveness to those who would ask for it long before the moment occurred. When people were caught in sin, He didn’t say, “Let me think about it before I make my decision to forgive you. After all, it was pretty bad what you did.” No, Jesus was prepared to offer forgiveness—no matter how bad the offense. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a permanent attitude.” That is the kind of preparation it takes to win the fight before the fight ever begins. 

Psalm 144:1

Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

Deciding to live by faith before challenging circumstances arrive in your life will prepare you to live victoriously. Understand that, in this fight, you will get hit; so preemptively choose to handle it God’s way by being prepared.