Waiting for victory

We know the story of Abraham to whom God promised a son when he was 75 years old. But after that, Abraham and his wife Sarah were only getting old, without any sign of a son. The thing about Abraham was that he held on to the promise of God even as he became more and more aware that he and his wife could not have any child. After 25 years of waiting, during which his faith was tested severely, God gave him the promised son. This story is given in the Bible as an encouragement to trust in God's promises even against all odds (Ro.4:18-21).

God has given us a promise that He will bring us to a place through His grace, where sin will not rule over our life (Ro.6:14). But many people fail to experience this in a real sense. We are not referring to doctrinal games some people play to assert that in Christ they are already victorious, because it is obvious to people around them that there is no actual practical victory to be seen! Some others have been waiting for years for God to remove their weaknesses from them so that they will no longer feel the temptation and thus have victory! This is not a real victory by definition, because there cannot be any victory without battles. Many give up hope of victory after some time. There are others who are fighting for victory, but years go by and some of them also give up.

Whether it is anger, lust, worry or anything else, even when sin clings to us and refuses to leave, we can still believe that what God has promised has to happen. We may be tempted to accept natural explanations how things are there in our genes or built into us through years of abuse or neglect, and why we cannot change. But it is God Almighty who has promised, and it will happen, if we don't give up our faith (He.10:23).

Abraham did not give up, even if it looked impossible for God's promise to be fulfilled. But it was not a passive waiting like what we mentioned above. He expected God to give him the promised son, and kept having a normal relationship with his wife. Isaac was not born like Jesus, but through God using natural processes to work miraculously.

When we hold on to faith, we will not give up. We will pray and pray for help because we are convinced of our own inability to fight against the lusts in our own flesh. Even if we fail at times, we will keep fighting against our lusts to overcome them and gain victory (Ro.6:12,13). God works in us to give us direction and power, and we fight to overcome in temptations that come our way (Php.2:12,13). Victory must come because God has promised it, even if it is taking time and we taste utter defeat now and them. God will do it for us, just as He did for Abraham.

The more defeat we experience, the more we will learn not to expect anything good from ourselves, and then we can depend more entirely on God's power. That is how He will be glorified. He will also give us the glory of victory over our enemies that have ruled over us in the past. His grace will win in the end.