Effective Strategy

March 3

Keep away from people who try to belittle you. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. - Mark Twain

It is indeed true that the people who try hardest to tear others down, to discourage them from believing in themselves are those whose inner heart is fraught with self-doubt and self-loathing. That may be small consolation when challenged with their pettiness, but it does interject a measure of understanding into the nature of the challenge they pose as well as insight into how to overcome it.

The first and most important thing is to believe firmly in the power of the living God who is within you, and to guard the truth you know (II Timothy 1:14); always trust that Jesus is your Advocate (I John 2:1). It is essential that the goodness and love of the Lord Jesus Christ are accepted as the basis of life and all its endeavors. Knowing that one truth empowers the person of faith to attempt great exploits and to have complete confidence in their outcome.

A second essential is to believe firmly in one’s own worthiness. If we do not believe we are good enough to be loved by God, the enemy can persuade us that we can succeed at nothing good because we are worthy of nothing good. This is a boldfaced lie that shreds the entire premise of salvation which is that our own goodness is irrelevant to the Lord's love for us. We must believe the basic premise that “God so loved the world He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life,” John 3:16.

Because His love overcomes all our foibles and sins, our unworthiness isn't even a factor in the salvation equation. The best thing we can say to the enemy when he tells us we're too wretched for the Lord to save, is to agree that he's absolutely right—we are wretched but the Savior is not limited by our paltry state! It is HIS PERFECT STATE THAT ENABLES HIM TO SAVE US!

When we place the entirety of our future for time and eternity into the loving hands of Jesus, we avail ourselves of the third thing we need—our total reliance on the efficaciousness of His finished work on Calvary. We can sing that beautiful hymn with gusto and complete conviction--"Just as I am without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me and as Thou biddest me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come; I come."

When we acknowledge that we have no merit, it is then we are able to lay before Him the only thing that can result in our salvation and blessing. We give Him our sin. That's all He wants from us—and in exchange for it, He gives us His righteousness. All the believers in our lives will counsel us to do just that because they know that is exactly what worked for them.