Victory or Defeat?
Hello
again, readers! I know it’s been quite a
while since I’ve been posting here on Heart-chords, for which I apologize, but
this stage of my life has been challenging in both the physical, emotional, and
spiritual I’ll admit. Nonetheless, God
is still speaking to me and teaching me and I have so many posts that I began
to write and never finished because I was taught another lesson before I
completed the one I was writing about. A
few months ago on June 23rd, I had shared with you all a visual of my position
in life at the moment, and thankfully, I am so happy to say now that God used
my church brothers and sisters one Sunday morning to help me back up to my feet
and I am moving forward again. That was
one of the blog posts I began and never finished. But the Lord has really laid on my heart to
share this message with you all instead for now.
Victory or defeat. Which to choose. I was confronted with this question last Wednesday
evening as my parents and I attended a Wednesday night Bible study at our
church. I was standing there worshipping
and had a lot on my mind. I had a lot
weighing down on me. In truth, I had
been experiencing a lot of discouragement lately. Discouragement in relationships,
discouragement in jobs, discouragement in opportunities… It seemed I had discouragement in almost every
area of my life. And this was weighing
heavily upon my mind that night.
But as I was praying, the Lord
brought to my memory the word “over-achiever.”
It was not a word that is entirely unfamiliar to me, and is one, in
fact, that I identify myself with. My
former riding instructor once told me, “You are an over-achiever.”
As the Lord brought that back to my
recollection, I reflected on the situation in which she had told me that. I had been at my riding lesson and was trying
to clear a jump she had set up in the outdoor arena of the farm. The horse I was riding however was not
cooperating very well. We would build up
our momentum in a fast gait canter as we approached the crossbeam and then… the
horse would break the gait, slow down to a trot, and prance over the beams. There was no real jump to it, no drive.
But I wouldn’t give up. “This is gonna be it. This is gonna be the show-stopper,” I had
laughed. And we would try again and
again until finally, we made the jump.
“You are an over-achiever,” my riding instructor laughed.
This was not the only incident in
which I refused to quit at something before accomplishing it first
however. But I stopped and asked myself
something that Wednesday night.
Why? Why had I tried so
hard? What motivated me to be so
relentless and to strive to succeed, to never give up and keep trying again and
again? What drove me to try the things in
riding and training that I was even nervous about doing?
The first was affection: my love for
my riding instructor. She was much more
than a riding instructor to me. We had
reminisced together, laughed together, shared future dreams and plans… She was a friend, a role model, and
encourager to me. And my affection for
her drove me to give my best every time.
And second was my trust in her. Even if I was uncertain about something, if
she instructed me to do it, I knew I could.
She would look past my doubts and fears and see my potential and capabilities
beyond and would call those out of the darkness. She would stretch my comfort zone. But because of her belief in me, believing I
could achieve the task she gave me, I believed in myself.
As I dwelled on this, the Lord
revealed to me a parallel in my relationship with my riding instructor and my
relationship with Him. Difficulties are
a part of life. Discouragement, fears,
and doubts will all inevitably come. But
when your whole world comes crashing in, what will be your motivator to
overcome the obstacles? What will drive
you forward? Your love for the Lord,
your trust in Him, and belief in yourself as you understand who you are in
Christ and the power you have through Him to accomplish the impossible. “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask
God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to
him. But when he asks, he must believe
and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and
tossed by the wind. That man should not
think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man,
unstable in all he does.” (Jas
1:5-8) So it is when we ask God for
victory though and when we go out to face the Enemy in battle. If we don’t believe that nothing is
impossible with the Lord and don’t believe that we will walk away in victory,
than we have no right to expect to win the battle and overcome. Of course, our motives as we go out to battle
have an effect on its outcome as well though.
“…whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1Co 10:31)
Are you wanting victory for the glory of God or for your own personal
gain somehow? But belief and expectation,
along with actually walking in those two elements, is a very important part of
our role. Miracles come to those who
believe in them. As Jesus Himself told
the father of a demon-possessed boy, “everything is possible for him who
believes.” (Mk 9:23) Trust God to not only win the battle but to
win the war.
But
some of the things I did during my riding lessons would seem pretty crazy to
anyone who didn’t work with horses. I
would fall from a horse and get right back up, despite the achiness or the
bruises. I would keep riding past the
bucking. A horse reared on me but I went
back to working on the exact thing he had reared in… and before the end of my
lesson, we had overcome the challenge.
These are things that no one except for riders and trainers could
understand. Things that seem reckless,
foolish, or just plain asking for trouble maybe. But Elizabeth and I understood why I did those
things, why she had encouraged me to press past the difficulties. Sometimes in our lives, God will call us to
do things that no one else will understand.
It’s not fun, it’s not easy going against the popular opinion, but
sometimes He will call you to do something that no one else will understand why
you’re doing it. Sometimes He’ll tell
you to hold onto hope in a situation that seems hopeless and already in
ruins. Readers, our companions, family,
and friends are wonderful- we need them- but we cannot go through life with a
need for the support of others. We can’t
always need someone’s approval to feel worth-while, to feel secure, to feel loved,
to feel successful. We have to be
able to stand on our own and find all the approval and support we need in
Christ alone because there will be times in our lives when no one else
goes with us, when no one else supports what we feel God calling us to do, when
we find we’re standing alone. We cannot
be a people whose decisions and actions are entirely dependent on the opinions
of others. “You will keep in perfect
peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the
Lord, is the Rock eternal.” (Isa 26:3&4)
The things God calls you to do and the things He calls you to invest
hope in will not always make sense to everyone else.
If you’ve ever ridden a horse before,
you know that there is sometimes only so much you can do though. You can only control a horse so much with a
bit and a bridle and can only do so much to stay in the saddle. That’s why people fall sometimes. I fell three times and had countless
near-falls. Because there’s a certain
amount of trust you have to put in your horse.
In reality, there’s only so much you can do. There’s only so much control you really have.
So it is with our lives. As we go through life, there is, in truth,
only so much we can do in our own ability.
When your friendship with someone is falling apart, there is only so
much you can do to reach out to that person and try to bridge that gap. When you’re unemployed, there is only so much
you can do to job-search and gain a position.
When God calls someone forward from your life, there is only so much you
can do. God gave us incredible minds,
incredible intelligence, and incredible abilities both mental and
physical. But there are limitations to
these human minds and human bodies. The
control we have over our own lives is limited.
The things we do and the decisions we make affect our lives and their
courses, but there are still some things that we have to trust the Lord in. They are beyond our own control. “The horse is made ready for the day of
battle, but victory rests with the Lord.”
(Pr 21:31) “Trust in the Lord
with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Pr 3:5)
Our ability to trust in the Lord and in His promises and the extent of
that trust are related to how much we understand our human limitations and are willing
to surrender our own control, realizing we know nothing apart from Him.
My riding instructor once told me,
“You have challenged me as a teacher to challenge you as a student.” What did she mean by this? Because I was always achieving the goals she
had set for me, she was always having to think up new goals for me. When we show ourselves willing to overcome
the obstacles to do what God has called us to do, we are demonstrating our
faithfulness and trustworthiness to Him and as a result, He’ll likely call us
to do more and more, things that might be difficult, challenges that come with
their our obstacles to overcome, but assignments that He knows we’re capable of
doing. “His master replied, ‘Well done,
good and faithful servant! You have been
faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s
happiness!’” (Mt 25:21&23) I don’t know about you, but at the end of the
day, I want to hear the Lord say these words to me. I want to be the kind of servant that He can
look at and say, “This one I can trust to do the job.”
As I stood
there in my church sanctuary, reflecting on my response to situations in my
life, I had to ask myself a question:
over-achiever… what had happened to her?
Had I left her on the farm? Maybe
you find you’re asking yourself the same question. Are you really responding to situations in
your life the way you should be? The
situations in your and in my life are commas in our stories. They are not periods. They are not “Game Over” signs; they are
“Processing, Please Wait” signs. No
matter how dim the situation might look, no matter what anyone says, the battle
is not over yet. If you’ve been running
away from the action, it’s not too late to still turn around and in the name of
Jesus to face the obstacles and the attacks of Enemy. “But thanks be to God, who gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore,
my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of
the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1Co 15:57-58 ESV) And remember, as
I read once, God gives His hardest battles to His strongest soldiers.
So I ask you again: victory or
defeat? Which to choose? The outcome of the battle is your
choice. Yes, the victory rests with the
Lord, but it’s our choice if we’re going to even prepare the horse for
battle. The outcome of the battle is
your choice. Are you going to choose
victory? Or are you going to choose
defeat? Are you going to be a champion
or a quitter?
We
all want victory over defeat, but it will take some overcoming and an
effort. It’s much more difficult to hang
in there and stand on the frontlines facing the gunfire rather than turning
around and retreating to safety and comfort.
But those who turn around and run never reach the other side and all
that lies in store for them there. Are
we really willing to make the sacrifice it takes to get there.
“Hear,
O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be
terrified or give way to panic before them.
For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you
against your enemies to give you victory.”
Deuteronomy
20:3&4
*Check out the song Whom Shall I Fear by
Chris Tomlin. This song has been
such an encouraging reminder to me!
~We’ve all heard of the phrase “pulling on her/ his heartstrings,”
but heart-chords? I was struggling to
decide what to name my blog. I wanted it
to be a name that was both creative and meaningful. As I pondered, my gaze fell upon my acoustic
guitar where it stands in my bedroom, and the Lord reminded me that our hearts-
our lives- are instruments. They are
constantly in song, but what melody our heart plays is each of our own
decisions. They can play a melody for
praise or for entertainment. A musician
selects his songs according to his audience.
So do we. Whether our audience is
the world or the Lord, our song will be different. This blog is designed to first, increase my
awareness in finding God and His guidance in my every day and second, to share
the music lessons He teaches me in tuning my heart to learn the chords of
praise He longs to play on my heart-instrument.
Music is a powerful tool. Use it
for His glory. “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of
praise to our God. Many will see and
fear and put their trust in the Lord.” Psalm 40:3
Welcome back, over-achiever. Great lesson!
ReplyDelete--From your faithful reader ❤