When You Have Done All

March 1

In order to be walked on, you have to be lying down. - Brian Weir

By this simplistic definition of being taken advantage of, of being denigrated and maligned, it is apparent that one must be complicit to his own demeaning. Most of us take the initiative to assure the ends we desire will be attained.

One who conducts his life on a high level of efficiency cannot achieve his goals from a prone position! He must be always on the move to assure the investment of himself will result in great things. He must be a Clark Kent kind of guy who is always at his post to get the job done. Superman just flies in at the crucial moment to receive the glory. While the audience (even Lois Lane) stands in awe of the Caped Crusader, the astute observer realizes that without Clark Kent's steadfast faithfulness, Superman's glory would be impossible!

So we are awed when Superman sweeps in to right every wrong in our little corner of the world, to allow our life to soar above the ordinary for a little while. Although we can't fly, we don't just lie there to be walked on either! We rise up in the power of who we are and Whose we are in Christ! As we are told in Ephesians 2:4-7, “Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. God raises us up with Christ and seats us with Him in the heavenly realms.”

We must continue to live a life of overcoming victory before those whose lives touch ours so they will gain--through the challenges we overcome—the insight into how a believer, with the Lord's help, can be "more than a conqueror," Romans 8:37, for indeed they will one day require all we can give them today to overcome their own problems! They will deal with difficulty effectively because we give them a daily dose of the strength that comes when faith and its incumbent power in prayer is appropriated!

Let Jesus make YOU mighty in faith; a believer who cannot be dragged down and trodden upon, for when we decide that we will overcome, we will be totally victorious through the Christ whose strength is perfected in our weakness according to II Corinthians 12:9. We won't 'lay down' in the fight; rather, as the scripture admonishes that we do, we will "stand" (Ephesians 6:13).