The Real Reason We Can Win
At times, Christians forget that we are not the ones who cause the transformation in our lives. If we could, than Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection was for nothing. We could transform ourselves, but this isn’t the case and we are not capable of doing such a thing. But what happens when people have success in their life? We tend to immediately give the attention to our own abilities. We fail to realize the implication of who really caused us to succeed. I once heard it put this way,
“Imagine yourself preparing for a race. You work out well in advance, you study racing techniques, you research the weather for the race, and you get to the race early and stretch. When the race begins you stay focused, you run the race well, passing many along the way, until finally you reach the end. Friends and family praise you for your effort. Here most people would take the glory and say thank you. However, for a believer who understands and recognize what God did, they know He fashioned your body capable of racing. He gave you the wisdom to understand the study of racing techniques and provided the techniques for you to study, He made the weather appropriate, He made the race runnable, He kept security at the race, He gave you the endurance to run the race, and surprisingly He picked you up and ran you to the end of the race. An immature Christian would not realize the importance that Christ has in our life, they see all that they did, and see they made it across the finish line. A mature Christian sees the work they put in, but recognizes Christ’s efforts to make us succeed.”
Psalm 44:3 states, “For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them; but it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance, Because you favored them.” You see, God does the work for us, even when we at times fail to see that He is doing it. What is worse, is when a believer recognizes that God is doing the work and yet they attempt to take the glory. God has a way of making the person remember error in this thinking, Deuteronomy 9:5-6 5 “[It is] not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart [that] you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations [that] the LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 “Therefore understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you [are] a stiff-necked people.”
So next time you have a victory in your life, do not forget to recognize the real reason for you winning. It isn’t because of you, it will never be because of you, but because of a loving Savior Jesus Christ who compassionately sustains you and helps you throughout your trial. It is why we have the promises of Jesus to never leave us, Hebrews 13:6 “So we may boldly say: “The LORD [is] my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Most forget that “man” in verse six, is also encompassing ourselves. This means that at times when we are acting in a negative way which will hurt us in the big picture, God will overcome this self afflicted wound and help us to the finish line. What does this mean for you and I? This means that as we run our race of life, we give it 100 percent and when we get to the end and hear “well done my good and faithful servant” we should respond with giving Jesus Christ the glory for doing the work in us that He promised to faithfully complete in 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming,
JL