Christians suffer defeat in our life for many
reasons. One is that we are still living through our soul, rather than from our
spirit. We pursue worldly gain and fulfillment and end up disappointed.
Another reason is that we trust in our own wisdom
and counsel. We forget to trust the Lord and to seek His will for each moment
of our day. Trusting God brings us continual success (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Many
Christians are also unaware that a spiritual battle is raging all around us to
either tempt us back into Satan's service or to render our life ineffective for
the kingdom of God (Ephesians 6:12).
Our only
source of victory is to allow God's Spirit to renew our mind, which brings us
freedom from the cares of this life and gives us an eternal perspective (Ephesians
5:23).
We gradually
learn to reject our human reasoning, which ends our struggle between infinite
faith and finite human understanding (Isiah 55:9).
We realize
that the testing of our faith produces patience to wait on God in the midst of
all of our negative circumstances, so that we can walk in obedience to God's
Spirit each moment of our day (2 John 1:6).
Rather
than surviving this world independently of God, we cling to Him as our Savior
and Lord. We recognize that we will perish without His constant intervention on
our behalf.
This puts
the devil and his demons to flight from our life, and allows us to reap the
benefits of living victoriously as members of God's own family (Psalm 103:2).
If we go
through the continual trials of life without the joy of the Lord in the midst
of them, we can change our focus to realize that there is a seed for a miracle
in the midst of each one of them.
Prayer:
Father
God, our flesh still pulls us toward humanistic thinking and reasoning. We buy
into the world's view of success and fulfillment; therefore, we work all of our
lives to provide temporal blessings for our self. Even if we happen to succeed,
in the end we will understand the futility of our life spent pursuing worldly gain (Mark
8:36).
Only when
we realize our helplessness will we be able to totally surrender to Your
benefits and provision for our life. Remind us that only as we live our life in
and for You, will we experience the true benefits of Your Life: peace, love and
joy in Your Spirit (Romans 14:17).
Thought
for the Day:
Even in
the midst of the fiery furnace, the three Hebrew children walked with God. - Daniel
3:17-18
