Victory Is Ours !

Who doesn't want to experience victory? Who wants to lose? Not me and not you! So how can we be sure that we can be on the "winning side"? It's according to what we're talking about I suppose. If it's a physical or mental opposition we're facing such as a tennis match or a chess game (neither of which I play by the way!) then the way to experience victory lies in getting stronger physically or mentally than our opponant. But if it's a spiritual victory that we're wanting then the answer is found in Scripture: "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." I Corinthians 15:57

Spiritual victory is found in letting God fight the battle for us and not trying to get "strong enough" to do it on our own. Remember what David said when he fought the giant Goliath: "And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hands." I Samuel 17:47

In just a few days many eyes will be glued to TV sets all over the world to see who wins the Super Bowl. Who will have the victory. And this is all right....to some degree. But to some people, this is their religion! I read on a news article this morning where someone remarked that they were getting to the Super Bowl in spite of the raging frozen precipitation falling even "if they had to crawl". How many of us as Christians would say that we were going to go "wherever" God was calling us even "if we had to crawl"? Die-hard sports fans put us to shame in their tenacity! Oh that I could be that much of a fanatic about the cause of Christ!

In the January issue of the AFA Journal there was a very interesting commentary by Matt Friedeman. The title was "Thank God my College Football Team is Losing". Here is an excerpt from the commentary: "He commented...jokingly...that now he could forget all about them and lift up his heart totally to God. He also told the story of on time one of the members of the board of Wesley Biblical Seminary said a friend had said to him that he quietly feared that his children might not want to attend Ole Miss. The board member responded with...'Not to worry...You drink from Ole Miss cups, give money to Ole Miss, never miss an Old Miss ballgame, wear Ole Miss clothes, have scrapbooks full of Ole Miss in your home, talk/joke/dream Ole Miss....of course your kids are going to go to Ole Miss.' Remembering Deuteronomy 6:5-7 ("And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.") it appears the friend had replaced the law of God with a school. Wonder how many of us have done the same with sports teams."
[Go here to read the complete commentary on Matt Friedeman's blog.]

Real victory in our lives comes only from God. Eugene M. Bartlett who wrote the words to "Victory in Jesus" realized this. Here are the words to the chorus of his song:
"O victory in Jesus My Savior, forever He sought me and bought me With His redeeming blood; He loved me 'ere I knew Him And all my love is due Him He plunged me to victory Beneath the cleansing flood. "

And so my friends....Victory is ours through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Marilyn