Overcome

Let's imagine for a minute that I told you I wanted to be a better runner. I figured out a training schedule, put on some nice running shorts and laced up the latest shoes. But when it was time to run I said that I was too tired or I didn't feel like it. Every day it was a different excuse until race day. I make it to the finish line, but I'm disappointed with my time. Obviously, I didn't do well because I wasn't willing to put forth the effort. I wanted to be a great runner but I didn't want to work like one.

That's the big problem with a lot of our modern churches. They are selling this Christianity that tells us we can get dressed and show up and that we will see the fullness of God's glory. We can get one of those nice looking Bibles for our coffee tables and come to church on Sundays and that's good enough. But God doesn't have good in mind. He has great. He has perfection. He has wonders. He has majesty. And if we aren't earnestly, actively seeking the Lord, we won't know Him. We will not see His hand in our lives. We will not see His joy; we will not recognize His blessings during the fire. We cannot accept a comfortable Christianity that does not expect us to take up our crosses and die to ourselves. We cannot be content to flounder when our God died so that we might flourish.

This summer, I've adopted a motto for my cross country training: RED (Run. Every. Day.) You know what else is red? Grace. Salvation. Love. The blood of Jesus has been poured out for every single one of us; the cross etched so deeply into all of our hearts. Christ died that we might live not in ourselves, because that's what we were already doing. And we were doing a pretty miserable job of it; sin had darkened our hearts and clouded our lives. But Jesus came so that in Him we could live and move and have our being. In God's grace we have life. In His blood we have overcome the powers of darkness. If we seek Him, we will see a greater purpose in our lives. If we strive to know the Lord, we will find victory in who He is.

But we can't take the cross for granted, or think of it as some nice symbol for church walls and jewelry. The cross is the greatest paradox in history - because in its pain we find life; its ugliness is what makes it so breathtakingly beautiful. We must chase after God the same way He has chased after us, seeking Him every day and allowing Him to challenge us with His incredible will for our lives. And then we will find that we have overcome.



Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.Luke 9:23-26

Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 1 Corinthians 9:26

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Revelation 12:11