Victory

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. - Romans 7:18b-19

Oh, the struggle of being human! We want to live out God’s will for our lives, but somehow our will keeps getting in the way. We want to wait on the Lord, yet we get impatient and act ahead of His will. Just like Saul who offered up the burnt offerings himself instead of waiting for the prophet Samuel – in doing so he lost his mandate to rule over Israel (1 Samuel 13). Other times, we may know God’s will for our lives, but do not see how He is going to bring them to pass. We rationalize and use our own methods to ‘force’ His will into our lives, like Abram and Sarai did to bring about offspring through their maidservant Hagar (Genesis 16). Perhaps there are days when we are filled with so much passion and conviction to follow Christ even to the point of death, but like Peter we end up denying Christ multiple times in the face of the smallest challenges (Matthew 26).

This is the struggle that apostle Paul writes about – that though he delights in doing God’s will, sin wages war within him to prevent him from doing so. We can identify with his exclamation, “What a wretched man I am!” (Romans 7)

The song ‘Victory’ describes this battle within and all the instances when we have fallen short of God’s glory. Going through the verses of the song, perhaps a more apt title may be ‘Frustration’ or ‘Defeat’. But thanks be to God, that victory has nothing to do with how hard we keep trying, or how righteous we could ever make ourselves appear to be! Victory comes when we recognise that we are weak but God is strong, and that His strength is made perfect in our weakness. 

The paradox of a Christian life is that freedom comes when we surrender. It is God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit that compels us to do His will.  By no means does this mean that we succumb to our evil desires and carry on sinning, for God has already conquered sin at the cross. Surrender is the recognition that God alone can save us. We keep running back to His arms of forgiveness with repentant hearts whenever we fall, clothed anew with His righteousness. 

No longer do we associate surrender with hopelessness and defeat. Surrender is offering up a living sacrifice! (Romans 12:1-2)

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want (Galatians 5:16-17).

Growing in victory is a process, where we keep on growing our roots deeper into His Word and abiding in Christ the vine, that we may bear much fruit – the fruit of the Spirit.