Victory in Jesus

I passed my youngest child’s room recently when I heard one of my favorite songs. As she gathered her notebooks and paper, my sweet ten-year old sang, “I heard an old, old story how a Savior came from glory.”

I stopped and listened and as she continued to sing, it dawned on me that just the fact that she knew the words to that song was in and of itself a victory.

Though we have obtained the greatest victory through Jesus (I Corinthians 15:57), smaller triumphs make up our days. It happens when we ignore the way we want to react to life’s situations and imitate our Savior instead (I Corinthians 11:1).

It includes forgiving, listening, and going that extra mile (Matthew 5:41). It’s hugging the lonely and feeding the hungry. It occurs when we find a need and to the glory of God become determined to fill it.

Victories are achieved when we get out of our comfort zone to tell someone else what Christ has done for us and what he will do for them.

It’s not just warming a pew a couple of times a week. It’s not just reading our Bible every morning. It’s not just praying before meals. It’s getting out, getting busy, and changing someone’s world because of our love for Jesus.

It’s time consuming and it may even be exhausting. It might make you cry and it most certainly will change your life.

As I listened to my youngest child sing “Victory in Jesus,” I realized that some victories don’t make the headlines or rounds at the local water-cooler and to the world they may not seem like anything at all.

Life’s best victories may be a kind word or good deed that only a few eyes ever see. But those victories, the ones that show others Jesus, are the ones that impact this world. They have the power to change a heart, a town, a nation, and a world.

God will always supply the opportunities to make a difference. May we always be ready to be victorious.

–by Paula Harrington @ www.forthright.net

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