New Year's Goal...

Do you set goals each year? Yes, I am a goal setter! Don’t always do a great job at following through with them but I do try! This year, I have decided to only set one…that is all I thought I could handle right now! So I started praying about it a few weeks ago. I asked God to show me a goal I could try and accomplish based on the valley I am walking through right now. As is often the case when He is trying to get me to consider something from Him, He brings the same thing to mind over and over again. I think it is because I am so hard headed, it takes a lot of times to get things to sink in! This often happens with Bible verses. When He brings a verse to mind a lot, I mull over it, think it through and try to figure out how applies to my life.

I have been thinking about this verse lately…

“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”  Romans 8:37

When I was reminded of this verse a few weeks ago during my quiet time, I remembered a devotional based on this verse from Millie Stamm’s book, Meditation Moments, that has ministered to me through the years.

A conqueror is one who has overcome, one who has triumphed and become a victor.  In our Christian lives, we can be conquerors, overcomers, victors – nay, we can be more than conquerors.

          To conquer is to gain the victory over our foes.  To be more than a conqueror is to learn from our foes lessons that could not be learned in any other way, lessons so valuable that we are glad the battle came.  We become more than conquerors by making the battle serve a good purpose in our lives.  Our adversity will then be turned to our advantage. 

          Day-by-day life brings tribulation, trials, and troubles.  The sphere of our conquest is stated in the phrase “all these things”.  We get our eyes on “all these things” and begin to go down in defeat.  But God has promised a “more than conquering” victory in “all these things” – not in spite of them but in the midst of them. We can rise up victorious and triumphant time after time.

          You may conquer as you patiently endure a storm in your life.  But you are more than a conqueror as you rise above the storm in radiant victory and triumph.  A great sorrow may come into your life.  You may accept it as God’s will and become a conqueror.  Or you may seek to draw closer to God through it and learn to know Him better that your heartache may enable you to be a blessing to someone else.  Thus, your tears turn to triumph and you are more than a conqueror.  The secret of being more than a conqueror is through Him – the One who loved us.

          “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory” (I Corinthians 15:57)

Many of the early Christians experienced great suffering.  Peter reminded them that suffering had a purpose and would eventually end in glory.  Therefore, they could rejoice in it.

          Down through the years, Christians have been beset with trials.  We may wonder why; we do not understand the reason.  But Peter wrote that trials are not unusual.  We are not to think it strange that they come. He said, “Don’t be bewildered or surprised when you go through the fiery trials ahead, for this is no strange unusual thing that is going to happen to you.”  (I Peter 4:12)

          Trials are a proving ground for testing us.  Therefore it is extremely important how we react to them.  It has been said, “The man of God is not perfected except by trial.”  We may murmur and complain.  We may indulge in self-pity.  Bitterness may creep in.  However, if we let God have His way in the trial, He will use it for His purpose and His glory.

While I was still in the "processing mode" about this verse and devotional, a dear friend (who had no clue I was studying this verse) wrote me an email about this very verse from Streams in the Desert! Here is what she shared from the devotional,

“This is also what God desires for His children. He wants us to be ‘more than conquerors’, turning storm clouds into chariots of victory. It is obvious when an army becomes ‘more than conquerors’ for it drives its enemies from the battle field and confiscates their food and supplies. This is exactly what this Scripture means. There are spoils to be taken! Dear believer, after experiencing the terrible valley of suffering, did you depart with the spoils?”

My sweet friend wrote, “I love that image…of boldly taking satan’s very sustenance from him on the battlefield he thought he would defeat us on. Praying for beauty to rise from ashes!”

Isn't that special that she wrote me about the very verse God had been drumming into my head and heart!! I love how He does things like that! I am not glad this battle came as the first devotional mentions...but I am determined to fight my way through it and get to the other side of the battlefield! And I am also determined that satan is not going to win this battle! So I think I know what God wants my goal to be this year! It is going to be a hard one…but I am going to try my best to be “more than a conqueror” as I walk through this valley. Lord, may it be so!

 

Praying this verse: "Now glory be to God who by His mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of - infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes." Ephesians 3:20

Fighting to be more than a conqueror

and collect those spoils from the battlefield!