Victory in Defeat

Of all the trials and persecutions that christ endured throughout His life, of all the pain that He saw in the people around Him, few instances are recorded as cutting through the very core of Jesus, so that He breaks down and cries. One such instance is when Jesus' friend, Lazarus, dies. John 11:35 is the shortest verse in all the Bible, but it comes packed with powerful emotion.

"Jesus wept."
Because we know we are going to heaven, we almost brush death off, especially if we have not epxerienced the loss of a loved one.

It is impossible to speak of Victory without speaking of Defeat. Ultimately, we shall experience victory. But that does not mean that we will not be defeated. Ultimately, Lazarus was raised from the dead, but he had to experience death, or defeat, first. Charles Cockroft says, "God not only lets us have Victory but uses the Defeats to accomplish His purposes in our lives."

God never minimizes or pains or sufferings or defeats. We can trust that He knows what is best, and we can trust that the end result will be good, whenever that may be. We are promised hard situations, and those situations may mean defeat. But God has a plan and a purpose for what happens. Consider the Israelites. They chose to disobey God again and again and again. Eventually, God had had enough, so He punished them and they went into exile. But He had an ultimate plan to bring His nation, His chosen people back to Him. You will be defeated. But, continue to trust God in your defeats, and you will see victory, too.

Living Life