You Can Be a Victor
Hi friend.
Are you victorious?
When I ask that, what comes to mind?
I used to feel defeated whenever I heard or saw a question like that.
My thoughts ran something along the lines of,” Me? Victorious? What a joke. Just look at this in my life. Look at that. That is NOT what victory looks like! I’ll probably never catch up, do it all right, be a VICTOR. Oh well, I can’t be perfect, so why try?”
And then I’d keep on doing things I knew probably weren’t helping me in victory. It seemed like I didn’t have the strength or ability to do it, no matter how hard I tried.
I had to understand the truth about my victory so I would stop looking to it for hope.
My “victory” is not perfection. To be perfect is an impossible standard for human beings.
I used to think, in my self-righteous pride, that it was possible for me if I just tried hard enough, applied enough biblical principles, or talked to the right people.
Not a grain of truth in that thought process.
I can, and would, never be perfect on my own.
And the truth is that my ‘victory’ is nothing more than an impossible fake.
Once God showed me that, and I accepted it as complete truth, I could walk away from it.
But where do you look if nothing you do will bring victory?
Are we all just doomed to failure and loss for our entire lives?
No.
It becomes freeing to know that I can’t measure up ever, because it turns me to the One who can and will always measure up and go beyond doing so.
Jesus Christ.
He is always perfect.
He is Perfection.
He is the Victor, because He defeated the ultimate enemy.
Death.
He offers to take on our failure and to place His Victory on our lives.
When you accept that, you start to operate out of Victory, instead of working towards it.
You begin to wake up each morning, joyful, content and eager to do life.
You know that no matter what happens that day, you are a victor because of, and through, Christ.
External circumstances no longer have a firm grasp on your outlook.
Fear is gone.
Peace overflows.
This isn’t to say hard things don’t come.
But when they do, you know the outcome won’t destroy you, if in your heart Christ has taken up residence and you are promised an eternity with Him.
Isn’t that just beyond amazing?
Christ becomes your starting point, and you seek to live like Him.
It’s not effortless, but the more you devote to walking with Him, the more your desires and innermost being will reflect His Image.
The more you surrender to Him, the more Victory you’ll see played out in your life.
You are a Victor, and the Holy Spirit allows you to live like it!
As you listen to His Voice, the more you will know Him and His Ways.
And you’ll also be able to discern between the world’s guidance and the Lord’s wisdom.
It’s not always clear as crystal, but you’ll know the difference.
Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. The person who does not love me does not obey my words. And the word you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me. “I have spoken these things while staying with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and will cause you to remember everything I said to you.
John 14:23-26
Victory – Love – Obedience – Remembrance
We love Jesus because He has given us Victory over the very thing that caused us to be lost, our sin and imperfection.
If we truly love Jesus, we will want to obey Him in what he has taught us.
And in living in complete dependance on Him, His Spirit reminds us of His teachings, through His Word, praying, and mediating on Him.
Now you might be saying,” Well, I don’t have victory so that doesn’t apply to me.”
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been fathered by God, and everyone who loves the father loves the child fathered by Him. By this we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments do not weigh us down, because everyone who has been fathered by God conquers the world.
1 John 5:1-4
If you do not have victory, there is only one possibility.
You aren’t surrendered to Christ.
Either you never have given yourself totally over to Him, or you have chosen sin over Him in some area of your life.
It is only under total submission to Christ and His ways, that you will be able to live out of His victory.
- Surrender: the action of yielding one’s person or giving up the possession of something especially into the power of another
- Submission: the condition of being submissive, humble, or compliant; an act of submitting to the authority or control of another
- Obedient: submissive to the restraint or command of authority: willing to obey
In today’s world this concept seems outdated, unwieldy, even offensive, at times.
But surrender is the only way to walk with Christ and to know Him as Savior.
Jesus Himself tells us so in the Scriptures.
“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from brambles. The good person out of the good treasury of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasury produces evil, for his mouth speaks from what fills his heart.
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do what I tell you?
“Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and puts them into practice—I will show you what he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on bedrock. When a flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. But the person who hears and does not put my words into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against that house, it collapsed immediately and was utterly destroyed!”
Luke 6:43-49
Harsh? Perhaps.
I would rather be told the truth of my situation than be thinking all is well and end up separate from God forever.
In eternal death.
Only in God is there life, hope and victory.
It is our choice whether we wish to walk in victory or remain in failure, loss and death forever.
We can make the choice.
But in making our decision, we aren’t given a choice as to the result.
Only God has the authority to do that. And He decided that a long time ago, in the Garden of Eden.
The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it. Then the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely
die.”Genesis 2:15-17
It is when we disobey and rebel against God’s commands that we die.
It is only when we surrender our entire life to Jesus, we will be set completely free and able to walk in total victory.
How have you been set free to walk in victory?
I’d love to hear how God has worked in your life!
