04/28/2024
I pray this ministers to anyone struggling to believe that they can be an overcomer, no matter what trial they might be facing! This is a devotional taken from a book that I co-authored called "A Few Words on Your Identity in Christ". 
YOU ARE AN OVERCOMER
“For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory
that has overcome the world, even our faith.”
- 1 John 5:4 (NIV)
What does it mean to “overcome” something? The answer is actually multi-faceted: it means to be victorious over adversity. It means that the issue or problem, or trying situation, no longer holds us in bo***ge or wields any power over us. It means, in essence, that we have succeeded in defeating something.
When we are facing a battle—whether it’s a dispute with a loved one, a temptation, an addiction we can’t seem to break, unforgiveness in our heart towards another, persecution for standing up for what is right and for Godly convictions—whatever the specific case may be, God tells us in His Word that we have already been deemed as overcomers! It’s part of our wonderful inheritance in Christ as children of the Most High God, having been given a new parentage and bloodline upon receiving the Lord Jesus as our Savior. But the crux of the issue hinges on whether we actually believe that we are overcomers.
Oftentimes, especially in cases of repeated problematic behavioral issues such as addictions, we can begin to lose hope that we’ll ever be free of them. Then the enemy of our soul, the accuser—“ha satan” in the Hebrew—goes about doing his job: he accuses us. The devil does so with his fiery darts and railing accusations against us, such as “There’s no hope. You’ll never get free from this, so you might as well stop trying. This stronghold is too powerful. You’ve given in to it too much and too often. As a result, it has grown and it now defines you.”
Along with these lies and all this condemnation, if we aren’t careful, shame sets in. And shame is by far the most difficult emotion that I help patients at my psychotherapy practice address. It’s the hardest to process because shame wraps itself around identity: it says, “I am flawed or defective in some way. Something is wrong with me that I can’t overcome this. I am wrong.” Shame is even more insidious than guilt, because guilt says, “I did something wrong”. Shame is a deep and dark pit that can be very difficult to climb out of…IF we attempt it in our own strength. But, God tells us that our identity is that of an overcomer, and if we cry out to HIM to help us in an area of struggle, the same power that enabled Christ to rise from the dead is within us in the form of the Holy Spirit.
Next time we find ourselves in a situation where the odds seem to be stacked against us, we are exhausted or feeling hopeless, or we have given it our best shot and still the situation has not changed, let’s remember our Source…are we trying to overcome by ourselves, or are we allowing the Lord to intervene and do for us what we cannot do on our own? Our God, who calls us overcomers, does so for a reason; He knows that when we rely on His strength, there is sure to be lasting victory!
We can choose to believe and receive that we truly are overcomers, because the One who is in us is greater—exponentially greater—than the one who is in the world!
PRAYER:
“Lord, thank You for calling us overcomers, because You have overcome the world! Whether we face small daily struggles or large challenging circumstances, remind us that our identity is established in You, and that we can walk out our victory by the power of Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ Mighty Name, Amen.”
