Victory

I have long been in search of victory in my life. It seems so allusive. Strangely enough, one might think obtaining victory would be easy as a Christian. After all, there has been book after book written on the subject. Whole ministries have been started based on the premise of victory. Overcoming this, Taking Down that, Hour of Victory, Born to Win, Power, Promises, and Promotion, just to name a few (the names here are purely fictional on my part so as to protect the identity of those involved). Well, you get the point.

Victory seems to be so much a part of the Christian life and culture. Yet, when I look around and talk to many of my brothers and sisters in Christ I find that after we stop pretending there's not a whole lot of winning going on. There is a lot of pain, a lot of suffering, a lot of crushed hopes and dreams......very little victory. So, what is the problem? Why don't we have the Victory? Why are we struggling.

I find that most teaching on living victoriously comes with a formulated plan. Perhaps it says something like "fast this many days," "Pray like this," "Worship like that," and let us not forget "Give till it hurts." If you're like me you have sought to obtain victory in this way. You followed the plan in hopes of a breakthrough. You hoped to go to that "next level." You were looking to finally be the head and not the tail, the lender not the borrower. You hoped and hoped. Prayed and prayed. Yet, no victory.

I have asked God about this for many years now. One of the answers I believe He has given me is that our view of victory is just not on par with His. Remember, His ways are not our Ways. When you look at the Cross and the great suffering of our Savior I can't imagine that in our humanity we would have chosen that course of action to obtain victory over sin, death, and the devil. We would have likely deployed the angels, called down fire from on high, or with the words of our mouth simply made it right. Who among us would have known that Christ was actually winning as He suffered on the cross? His followers weren't thinking, "Championship!" on that day. Yet, it was through this seeming loss that Christ paid our debt, wiped away our sin, and obtained eternal life for us. I could go on about this but I will save that for another time.

The other issue might be that we are looking for victory in things rather than in a person. Psalm 3:8 says, "Victory comes from you, O Lord..." Maybe we have been looking for victory in all the wrong places? Perhaps, we have been looking for victory in our own strength and in our own talents? In verse 3 of Psalm 3 it states, "But you, O Lord, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high." Maybe we should just run to God and let him shield us from what we are going through. It is there in His presence that victory will be found. It is there that we shall overcome-by His might.

Those things I mentioned earlier (prayer, fasting, worship, etc...) are all avenues of connecting with our Lord. They are to be used and practiced regularly. However, they are worthless if our goal is to obtain something different than the presence of God. Victory comes from Him. Let us go to Him and in doing so obtain victory.