More Than Conquerors
Romans 8:35-39 KJV
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
More than conquerors? To me that phrase says there is no way to lose when we struggle for and with “him that loved us.” It means that no matter what man’s definition of victory may be we will be victorious in and through Christ Jesus.
What would you do if you were guaranteed you would be successful? How would your dreams be different? How would your life be different if you knew that whatever you set your mind to, it would be accomplished? What if you could live your entire life giving glory and honor to our Savior and not have to be concerned what others thought of you?
Guess what? That’s what these verses are telling you. If God is the focus of every decision you make, you cannot fail. You cannot fail. To God, merely taking the leap of faith is success! Isn’t that freeing? Merely offering up our every thought, decision, action and plan to God, means we have succeeded. He so desires our hearts that He created a fool-proof success plan: Jesus!
These words of hope come with a tremendous sense of responsibility as well, though. How does one respond to such a gift? How do we reshape and re-evaluate our lives in light of this great promise? What wrongs do we feel compelled to right in the world? What hurts and pains are we compelled to ease and soothe?
From what I hear on the evening news, there is plenty of suffering, famine, heartache, poverty, homelessness and war to go around. Any one of those tragic human conditions would be a good place to focus. Maybe first we can look around us at the individuals in our daily lives. Perhaps we are estranged from a family member or have a severed friendship that we need to repair.
Perhaps we can vote responsibly and get involved in our local politics. Maybe we can merely decide to live the best life we can possibly live. That may seem like a small thing, but remember, through Christ, we are more than conquerors.
My prayer today is that you reframe your life by both offering your life to Christ, and claiming the victory of His resurrection as your own.
Mary
Because of Christ, We Can Dream Big
Hosea 2:8 KJV
And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
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Isaiah 65:25 NASB
"The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent's food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain," says the LORD.
These words from the Old Testament seem almost amusing to us in this day and age. First of all, we live in a time of conflict and, if you watch the evening news they’ll tell you we’re on the verge of World War III. We may be tempted to think that well, maybe the animals can all learn to get along, but not man!
Are Hosea and Isaiah talking about heaven? Are they speaking figuratively? I haven’t researched the context of both of these, but I found it interesting that this same imagery is used by different prophets. Of course, Christ is the one who allows all this to even become a remote possibility. His life and death changed the paradigm of human history forever.
Through these two prophets, God wanted to convey to us that anything is possible through Him. Not only can God change a current reality into something unimaginable in the future, we can change our own reality through faith in Him. That requires a great deal from us, doesn’t it? Especially since our accomplishing anything in this life requires surrendering the outcome to God. Honestly, I resist that surrender, even though God sent Christ – and turned his death into a victorious resurrection!
That’s where I hesitate. No, that’s where I flounder! I’m a real control freak! I don’t know why, because often my plans are smaller and narrower and “less” than they could be if I allowed room for God in the planning process. Perhaps these verses are about peace. I read them as God telling me He can turn the best laid plans of man upside down. I read them this morning to say that whatever plans I have, God will allow them to be so much for fruitful if I give Him control of the outcome.
I know the world is so big, and it seems as if man has just gone too far down the path of greed, power-grasping, selfishness and hate. I know that the whole world can seem to be tumbling toward destruction and devastation. I know my dreams and hopes seem really big and unattainable. I know I’m just one small, solitary person. I know, too, though that because of Christ the history of the world was changed.
Because of Christ, my own future and destiny were re-written as well. Through Christ, I can achieve anything that I desire, if I will give God glory. God wants us to imagine the kind of world described in Isaiah and Hosea. Because if can imagine that world, we can imagine anything!
My prayer today is that you dream big, and turn the results over God, who can bring about all things.
Mary
Labels: Christ, dream, dreams, future, history, prophets, surrender
