07/03/2014 - SUCCESSFUL OR DEFEATED?

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If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. John 13.17

As you learn the message that the Word of God proclaims, your attitude towards its revelation will show if you will be successful or defeated. If you forcefully forget the Word or refuse to assume what it says, it means that the enemy has already managed to deceive you. Those who strive to fulfill the divine commandment, despite the opposition they face, will be on the victorious side.

Abraham could have been accommodated with Sarah’s infertility. After all, he had prayed, and the Lord had not healed his wife until then. However, inside his heart there was a certainty that the Most High did not create his woman for her not to bear fruit. Then, with determination, he was fully certain that the God that promised him a son was powerful to fulfill his promise, even though Sarah was already very old. He did not let his faith weaken, but gave glory to the Almighty.

David could have returned to care for his father’s flock, since the king envied him and wanted to kill him by all means. However, inside his heart he believed in the Word of God, so he stood against the powerful Saul and left victorious. If he had returned to his old life, we would not have the beautiful example that he left of his perseverance nor of the wonderful and revealing Psalms that he wrote.

The same can be said of so many other servants of God, who did not become heroes of faith (Hb 11) by chance. Even in the worst conditions, they held tight to what the Lord had ordered them and were not influenced by the devil’s lies. The difference lies in believing and obeying what the Almighty says. Those who look to the divine Word learn how to fight, and as in biblical days, they draw strength from their weakness to be victorious.

Imagine if young Mary had said “no” to the mission that God entrusted her… In the times in which she lived, if a single woman showed up pregnant, she could be stoned. But humbly, she told the angel that she accepted the word of God to be fulfilled in her life (Lk 1.30-38). The Lord needs people that love Him more than their own lives, people that will be able to enter a pit on a snowy day, and kill a lion (1 Cor 11.22). Would you be able to do this?

The title of hero, martyr, or champion will not be given to those who calculate and conclude that it is not right to obey at the moment. Those who are like mercenaries when the wolf comes (Jo 10.12) will not be accepted in God’s family. The Word is clear that the cowardly will not enter the kingdom, but the just will be received with praise (Rv 21.1-8). Against any of the enemy’s assaults, the choice will always be yours.

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares