The Horizon

 "You are my King and my God. You command victories for Israel." Psalm 44:4...."God speaks the language of victories, not defeats." Chris Tiegreen

As a pastor, it has always been heartbreaking to me to observe all the lack of victory that is present in the lives of His people. In no way is this His will for any of us, yet it is the norm in many lives. How? Why?

The greatest enemy of humankind is death, both physical, and even more, spiritual. Both were conquered by Christ on the cross and in His resurrection. Somehow, our minds, our faith, cannot seem to get a real grip on the magnitude of that reality. Somehow, we have allowed death to be more real than His life, and defeat more our lot than His victory. Too many of us don't live expecting victory. We live resigned to defeat. As a result, our sins, our flaws, our failures are what we see before us, not His promise of resurrection life. We have heard, countless times, His promise of freedom, but we don't really believe we can be free. We see our infirmities, our besetting sins, our addictions, as all being bigger and greater than Him. Not in what we say, but in what we believe in the core of our being. God said to His people Israel, after they'd been conquered by the Babylonians, that they were prisoners and slaves in the very land that He had given them. It was their promised land, but by their own choices, and ultimate unbelief, they were not living in the fruit and fullness of His promise. They were being held captive in the the land of their promise. How like them are many of us?

Someone said that death is always the devil's horizon for all of us, but that God's horizon was life. Free, full, abundant, and eternal life. Each of us walks towards one of these horizon's. Those without Him already travel in the enemies direction, but what of those who would name Him as Lord and Savior? How captive are you to his lies? He has countless ways to tell us there is no hope, whether it be as individuals, families, and even church fellowships. He blinds us to God's horizon that is right before us, so that all we see is his mirage.

I don't write this from the perspective of never knowing defeat or failure. I have, and more than once. But I also know that most of my defeats have come as a result of not living fully in Him, of determining to have my way, and making choices and decisions outside of His will, and trusting in my understanding and not His. But I have also learned something great in this; as someone said, God is not affected by our defeats. His word for us remains "victory," and if we'll bring our defeats, failures, and yes, sins to Him, along with the confession and repentance that must accompany them, He will turn our defeat and failure into His, and our victory. When we do, the devil's false horizon disappears, and what lies before us is His horizon of life. Life as an overcomer. That's the life we were made for. And that life is possible because.....He commands it!

Blessings,
Pastor O