World, I Have Overcome You

I was driving home today when I realized how hard I've fallen. I don't speak words of life. I succumb to the temptations of this world. I neglect the most important relationship I could ever have -- and I watch it all happen as if I cannot stop it. No. I allow it to happen.

So in the car, as I'm having my pity party, I realized that Jesus died to break the chains that hold me as I watch. The same power that He had dwells in me. He has given me the power to overcome "by the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony." How have I become so prideful that I reject the grace that God has given me? How have I forgotten that there is more to this world than how you look, what others think of you, how much fun you have? All that is temporary.. stupid, even. There is absolutely no point. Where have I gone?

A wise friend of mine told me that the grace I can give to others is based on the grace I allow myself to receive from God. It is the same with everything else -- every problem I have and ever will have. He is the source. He is the source of everything. He is everything. If I refuse love from Love Himself, how can I expect to react to my family? Or my husband? My kids? (yeah, I'm jumping ahead a bit; but it's still a good thing to ponder)

Anyways, in this moment of wondering how I've ended up here, God whispered to me through a John Mark McMillan song. I wasn't really listening to the words (I was thinking really hard), but He made me listen to the chorus:

"World, I have overcome you

World, I have overcome you

World, I have overcome

By my song and the blood of a Son"

World, I have overcome you. I continue to repeat that to myself. I have overcome you. I have been given the power to overcome. Every time. Thank You, God.

And so, my journey begins. I will take another step, and continue doing so until I have finished the race. I have overcome the world by the blood of the Son of God. There is nothing more to life. How I look, my status, or what I do is irrelevant after I realize the fact that I am God's gem, and He has overcome that I may also overcome.

Revelation 12:11

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death."