Through Him I Fight

He is the only source of my strength

I feel like I fight all day long

The attack presses in from all sides

I block, deflect, and push them aside

Counter attack, press my advantage

Push too far and get hit again

My soul is strong, but after enough fighting, I get tired

My bruises start to hurt

My limp starts to show

My shoulder starts to drop and I am vulnerable

My enemies see me sweat

I feel the blood from the wound that reopened again

Must remember to protect that

I could get really hurt if that gets worse

My weakness

I press on through a second wind

I regain ground

I fight back

I win this battle only to turn the corner and face another one

More opponents

More enemies

More fighting

I can’t give up

I can only lose if I stop fighting

Must keep fighting

My strength will fail

It is when my strength fails that His lifts me up

My weakness becomes my strength through His mercy for His power is great

I cannot fail for if He is for me then who can be against me

I stand up and I fight

I fight with Him at my side

Helping me dodge

Moving my feet

Guiding my hands as I fight off my enemies

My struggle

My temptations

My fight

I may trip and fall but He helps me back up

I cannot lose unless I stop fighting

Through Him I am strong

Through Him I am victorious

Through Him I fight

Reviews

[Nigel Newman]

Mitch Hi. I think you've written this well. I don't share in having a strong faith and personally I don't understand why all you seem to see is enemies when there's a lot of good out there, but this is your poem, your message. I like the repetitions - I think they work. And I like the metaphors of physical struggle, perhaps a race of some kind. I also like the way you've built the description of your struggle; it's almost 'and another thing ...' so that we start to see your struggles in a more complete way.

That said, I'm guessing your enemy is your own temptations, and if I were to suggest any improvements it would be to lay those out a little more tantalisingly to help the reader share the challenges you face in overcoming them.

One typo in V1 L5 'too'.

Nice work!
Nigel

[Mitch]

Thanks for the read and review. Yes, the struggle here are my own temptations, which I keep a fairly good grip on. I didn't mean to give the impression that all I see are enemies. I actually am a glass-half-full kind of person and see far more good in the world. Temptation and struggle are everyday and sometimes can wear on you. Thanks for the "too" catch. I've updated the line.