The Surprise of Victory in Christ
At one time, I assumed that “victory in Christ”—or living a victorious Christian life in the middle of our sinful, messed-up world—meant having victory in my own life, as I chose to define it.
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At one time, I assumed that “victory in Christ”—or living a victorious Christian life in the middle of our sinful, messed-up world—meant having victory in my own life, as I chose to define it.
Have you noticed the happiness of grateful people compared to the unappreciative? Gratitude and happiness seem to stick together, like two tight-stitched friends. Where we find one, we find the other.
The exercise of this discipline called self-control prevents desire from becoming a dictator. For the person without Christ, the desires dictate and he or she obeys. Those in Christ are able to defy this once-powerful dictator.
The great heroes of the Bible and church history have been people with the courage to say “No” to sin. They didn’t condone it or compromise with it. The root of Daniel’s courage was his trust in the Lord and His precepts, provision, and protection.
When God scans the earth for potential leaders, He is not on a search for angels in the flesh. He is certainly not looking for perfect people. He is searching for men and women like you and me, mere people made up of flesh, bone, and blood.
Waiting on the Lord means we are looking to Him for grace—the desire and power needed in a situation. Sometimes we know the thing to do, but don’t want or desire it. We need to wait on the Lord to supply even the desire to do the right thing.
As citizens of that world to come, our work today—whether in our homes, our cities, or around the world—should be to live out and encourage the ideals of that world to come with every fibre of our beings.
Believe it or not, your personal testimony is one of the most powerful and compelling tools God has given you in reaching nonbelievers with the Gospel. Now, I’m not talking about the common, garden-variety, churchy “braggamony.”
It seems to be a method of operating that God chooses nobodies—people of no account living in obscurity. “God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.”
Peace. Whisper the word to yourself and you can almost feel your heart relax. When you’re at peace, you feel an inner confidence that things are not running wild—regardless of the circumstances. Your mind is at rest.