Scripture
He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
Quote
The whole of the Christian life is one of conflict; we are in an atmosphere and in a world where there is a great fight going on.
~Martyn Lloyd Jones
I am about to finish Martyn Lloyd Jones daily devotion WALKING WITH GOD. Jones has a theme for each month and his theme for December is the VICTORY OF FAITH and his theme verse is I John 5:4, For everything that has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the overcoming that has overcome the world—our faith. I have been thinking a lot about this word OVERCOME and so I decided to look in the concordance and see how many times this word is used and how it is used. In Romans 8 Paul said, Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction, or turmoil, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were counted as sheep for the slaughter.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. I highlighted all these things which includes danger {peril} and death {sword}. The Greek word for overwhelmingly conquer is hypernikaō. Hyper meaning more than and niki meaning conquer. Do you feel like a hyper-niki? I don’t, but feelings never determine our position in Christ. Noah may not have felt like an overcomer but inside the Ark he overcame. Jesus is our ARK. In Him, we overcome. But I found it interesting how many ways this word overcome is used.
- Joseph was overcome by his emotions–Genesis 43:30
- So was David–2 Samuel 18:33
- Job was overcome by misery–Job 20:22
- Some are overcome by evil–Psalm 112:6
- Solomon said, “A calm spirit can overcome a great mistake.”–Eccl:10:4
- Jeremiah was overcome by grief–Jeremiah 8:21
- Some are overcome by wine–Jeremiah 23:9
- Ezekiel said, “Fear and trembling would overcome the Jews.”–Ezekiel 7:25
- Daniel was overcome by sickness–Daniel 8:27
- The father in Mark 9 was overcome by unbelief–Mark 9:24
- The disciplined church member at Corinth was in danger of being overcome by discouragement–2 Corinthians 2:7
- Paul said, even believers can be overcome by sin–Galatians 6:1 {all these references are in the NLT}
In the letters to the seven churches, OVERCOMING is mentioned in all except the second, Smyrna…
- Ephesus–To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’
- Pergamum–To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’
- Sardis–He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will never erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
- Philadelphia–He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the sanctuary of My God, and he will never go out from it anymore.
- Laodicea–He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
As believers our primary struggle in this spiritual war is to OVERCOME evil, temptation, fear, doubt, depression and sin. There is no neutral ground: either we overcome, or something overcomes us. I can guarantee you one thing: we will not overcome any of the above apart from Jesus and His word. Thank God for Psalm 31 which was a particular blessing for me today.
Extra
A change of schedule for me today. June is having a shoulder replaced this morning at Decature General. I may make it to the Mid-week service but Josh is on standby if I do not. If I do, we are in book 2, chapter 2, The Invasion.
I hope you have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.