If You Want To Stop Living In Defeat, Do This One Thing
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Do you feel defeated in your Christian life right now?
You must be in good company, because it seems that a lot of Christians feel the same way. Mega churches and worldwide ministries are built on strategies to help you live in victory.
There are stacks of books and hundreds of articles written on how stop living in defeat and walk victoriously.
However, much of what is said is just pop-psychology repackaged in neat, Christian packaging to make it appealing to the church demographic.
There is one thing Christians all of the world must do to stop living in defeat.
If you do not do this one thing, all of the positive affirmations, self-help sermons, and strategies for victory will not help you.
You will continue to live in defeat, despite all of your efforts.
If you were looking for a blogger to cheer you on with rah, rah, rah and give you 5 steps to lasting victory, I’m sorry. You came to the wrong place.
There are no 5 steps to total victory.
There is just one, and it is hard. It will not be easy. It will be painful, and you may not like it.
If You Want To Stop Living In Defeat, Do This One Thing
This post will not make me #1, and few books are written on this topic because it will make no one a New York Times’ best seller.
It’s not popular.
It never has been.
Even thousands and thousands of years ago, back in the Old Testament, we see that this was about as popular as a scared skunk on a hot summer day.
In other words, people ran from this one thing.
There were no polished, hip, skinny-jeans wearing, gel-tousled hair prophets of God in Judah and Israel preaching this one thing that would have spared God’s people the defeat they continually lived in.
Well, I take that back.
Yes there were, and they got stoned. (2 Chronicles 24:20-22)
How’s that for a strategy on “living your best life now”?
Preaching the truth back then was the equivalent to a suicide pill. A death wish. A kamikaze mission.
And yet, it is the very thing that is the key to living in 100%, total victory all of the time. It is what defeats the cycle of defeat in your life for good.
Do I have your attention now?
The one thing that will defeat the cycle of defeat
We are in week 3 of our Good Morning Girls’ Bible study through the book of 2 Kings, and I had to flip back a few pages to make sure that the company that printed my Bible didn’t accidentally just hit copy/paste.
Because I felt like I kept reading the same verses over and over and over.
“King ______ did what was right in the sight of the Lord….however the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.”
In other words, king after king ruled over Israel and Judah and some really had a heart for God.
They loved God and they genuinely wanted to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Joash even commissioned to have the temple repaired.
But there was one thing they would not do that was the very key to living in total victory over their enemies.
The one thing that would have stopped the cycle of defeat in God’s people was tearing down the high places.
“High places” were shrines erected to false gods in which they would hold festivals and feasts, sacrifice, and burn incense to these gods.
Notice that when Joash became king in 2 Kings 11, they destroyed the temples of Baal, but they left the high places.
They destroyed idolatry to a point, but they refused to go all the way.
And the consequence was that God’s people were continually defeated by their enemies.
This is why so many Christians live defeated
The reason why so many Christians feel defeated is because they love God to a point, but they are not willing to take the radical steps to completely eradicate idolatry in their lives.
It’s not that they are living in full-blown idolatry.
Just like in Judah, when Athaliah was killed and Josah became king, the people destroyed the altars of Baal, so many Christians will turn from the obvious sins in their lives.
But Judah left the high places.
And many Christians do the same. They will walk away from obvious sins, but leave little altars all over their hearts – because they assume that God isn’t as concerned about those ones.
Oh yes He is!
He is concerned about every high place in your heart that exalts something over Him.
He is a jealous God – He wants all of your affection!
Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” Luke 10:27
All means all.
All doesn’t mean that we leave little high places in our lives that we refuse to surrender.
Living in victory comes with a price
The reason why so few preachers who preach about victory will not preach against idolatry is because it is so costly.
If you genuinely want to tear down every high place in your heart, you must be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to soften your heart so that you feel Him prick your heart each time you encounter a high place.
And then, you must be willing to surrender to Him each and every time.
It wont be easy. Because He is bound to prick your heart about those things you really, really like! And your flesh will respond with, “No, not that!”
But the minute this becomes your response is your first step towards a cycle of defeat.
Tearing down high places in your heart will also cost you friendships and relationships; because it will require you saying “no” to certain activities you’ve always enjoyed with friends.
You will need to learn to say, “Others may, I can’t”.
You will be misunderstood.
You will be rejected.
You will be called extreme and radical; politically incorrect and a fanatic.
Living in total victory comes with a price, but the rewards are eternal!
