What do you think of when you think of victory? Is it your favorite sports team win the c game or the championship? Is it you winning in a game you are playing? Is it you conquering a huge project at work? Is it getting rid of a bad habit? Is it losing the weight you have put on since you graduated from college? Are you victorious? Is the victory that you have because of something you have done? My victory is none of those things. My victory in fact was wone for me and it is that victory that brings me hope. Let me tell you what God has told me about how victory brings hope.
I am writing this on Election Day prior to the polls being closed and the winner declared. Someone is going to be victorious. That victory is fleeting in that it only lasts for a few years two, four or six here in America. Then it starts all over again or in some cases it will only last for four more years. However, the consequences can last for generations. My guess is some of you are going to like what happens tonight and some of you are not but only time will tell. I have learned that there are different kinds of victories those that are temporary and those that are everlasting. Tonight’s victories are of the temporary kind. Some of you will have hope and some of you will be hopeless at least in the way and the direction the United States is heading.
God has taught me that I should not pin my hopes upon man thus the results of an election. God has taught me that there is only one victory that is worth pinning my hopes on and that is the victory that occurred over sin and death when Christ died and rose from death. I have hope because I am on the winning side because I am on Jesus’ side. “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I Corinthians 15:57 (ESV)
He has also taught me that I do not have to worry about the battle because He is fighting my battles and God always wins. “For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.” Deuteronomy 20:4 (ESV) Jesus told me in John 16:33, that things may be tough in the world and that the world may appear to be winning but the world and Satan does not win Jesus does. It says, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. ‘In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.’” (ESV)
In the end Jesus says in Revelations 21:8, “And he said to me, “’t is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son’.” (ESV) I ask you to join me in victory if you are not part of this great family of God by accepting Jesus as your personal savior and Lord and know that you too will have victory that brings hope.
I pray that you experience the victory that brings about hope. It is the victory that we receive through Christ’s victory over sin and death that brings us hope. It is the ultimate victory that brings me hope and you can have it as well. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8 (ESV) It is this forgiveness that brings me hope and it is in granting others forgiveness we know for certain that we too are forgiven. The knowledge of being forgiven brings me hope. Remember though that all sin is forgivable except the sin of unbelieve in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the cross satisfied the penalty for my sins and yours as well. It satisfied all my sins from the past, in the present, and in the future. My penalty and yours were satisfied on the cross by the death of Jesus, God’s greatest act of love and wrath, who became sin for me and you. It was also God’s greatest act of faithfulness because “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (ESV) Because wisdom shows us, we need to believe in Jesus. I hope that you join me in helping others to choose Jesus.
If you have not read my previous blogs, you can find them here. You can watch a book trailer about my book. You can find my book, Hope Amid Hopelessness: Our Abba Father Provides a Way Through Mental Illness here. eBook or Audiobook versions can be found at Westbow Press
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