For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. (1 John 5:4)
Girl, don’t worry about it. It’ll be alright. Just take a deep breath. You’ve been here before.
The ages of my children range from 15 to 32. At this stage of my life as a mother, I have seen and heard A LOT! While there is no one-size-fits-all manual for parenting, what gives me some measure of confidence is that my 32-year-old informs me, to some degree, of what I can expect with my 15-year-old as I continue to parent him through the last phase of his teenage years..
I remember when my 32-year-old was 15. The challenges that came with having a teenager made parenting feel like an uphill battle at times! There were the debates she and I had over her desire for independence and what she perceived to be our infringement on the same. Then there were the debates her father and I had about our different opinions regarding the level of freedom our daughter should have.
And then there were all the hormonal changes. Whew!
Needless to say, at 32, I enjoy time with my oldest child. I enjoy my friendship with her. And I’m grateful that we enjoy our relationship with one another. It gives me hope to persevere in the last of the five teenage seasons in my motherhood journey. When I sense a challenge looming as I parent my 15-year-old, I now have a posture of overcoming. Because I’ve done it once, multiple times…
I can say, I’ve been here before.
In the same way, I can imagine that many of us know what it’s like to have a plan for our finances, and yet, something comes up unexpectedly that needs to be taken care of right away, and our plan has to shift. It can be very nerve-wracking especially when money’s already tight, or when you have just established a savings or just started a new job and something pops up. In these moments, you may feel like anything but an overcomer.
Scripture reminds us, in 1 John 5:4-5, that “ For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Learning how to overcome with God is the journey of building faith in God. It’s the journey of trusting Him when you do not yet have the testimony of overcoming your current situation, and you must rely on past testimonies to get you through.
Overcoming is the believer’s birthright.
If you approach everything in your life with an attitude of expectancy and a belief that you are an overcomer, your hope changes things. It changes the way you operate in your faith. When you operate in your faith as if God is working, you have the ability to skip the cyclical parts of faith development that can slow you down.
Most people take longer to develop their faith muscles because they recoil. It takes them three or four times to go, you know what, I’ve been here before. I may be stressed out right now, I may be overwhelmed right now, I’m frustrated right now, I may be feeling anxiety rising up in my bones right now, but I’ve been here before.
Because the Spirit of God is a comforter, He can bring ease to that anxiety and remind you that you’re an overcomer.
Because you serve a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-present, you can rest in knowing that you’re an overcomer.
Because of the nurture and nature of God, the Spirit himself testifies that you’re an overcomer.
So this is me telling you, as you continue to move forward in the New Year, you will be alright. And I mean, in every sense of the word.
Know that God is moving you from glory to glory. He’s stretching you. He trusts you enough to allow circumstances in your life for you to learn from and, by learning, you will grow. I’m praying that you will expand to experience the Lord in a fresh way this year. And because of your willingness to grow, I pray you will come to know that you indeed are an overcome.
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