Are You an Overcomer?

You’re an overcomer!
You have triumphed over your circumstances!
You should be so proud to have pulled yourself up by those bootstraps!

Ever been to a motivational speech? We hear these phrases constantly in society. Oh, and this one is a staple – Give yourself a pat on the back. You deserve it!

Let’s be real for a moment. I have been through a lot in my life. Have you? My guess is that you have seen your fair share of the heartaches and pains this world seems to have in steady supply for unsuspecting victims.

Insurmountable circumstances have presented themselves more times than I can count.

Job loss on the day I was leaving town to get married. Heartache so deep it prompted me to write a book. Rejection that made me feel like I would never be worthy of someone’s love. Abandonment by those closest to me. Betrayal by fellow Christians. Death of loved ones, and vicious attacks on my character.

I have also been on a physical death bed. Spinal taps, IV fluids, chemical poisoning, and emergency treatment for pneumonia, the list goes on and on.

Can you relate? Have your decades of life left some scars?

But wait, look where I am now!
I’m an overcomer!
I deserve a pat on my back!

Right?

WRONG!

I didn’t overcome my circumstances. I’m just a girl who persisted through the tough circumstances because of Christ, and He resolved them in His timing.

We all love rags to riches type stories. There is something so encouraging and hopeful when we see the person who had been handed a bucket of struggle use that struggle as fertilizer for the growth of attaining their dreams.

So, what’s wrong with wanting to be an overcomer? The problem is the heart posture that being an overcomer creates. It’s a heart posture of pride.

The question shouldn’t be – can you overcome your circumstances? The question should be – can you persist with patience through your circumstances until Christ delivers you?

When we are the overcomer, we get the glory for our successes and the deliverance from our unfortunate circumstances.

When we persist and wait for the Lord to deliver us, He gets all the glory, and it allows us to cultivate a humble heart in the waiting.

Does this negate the need for hard work, and doing what is in our power to change our circumstances? No.

We have responsibilities to ourselves and others. We can set high goals and develop the fruits of the Spirit like self-control to assist us in our endeavours, but we need to do so with a mind to persist, persevere, and endure.

Matthew 24:13 HCSB “But the one who endures to the end will be delivered.” Notice we don’t need to be the ones that overcome. We need to be the ones who can endure.

So, hang in there! Persist. Endure. Persevere. Keep it up.
The Lord will deliver you.

And the best part of it all is that you will emerge on the other side with a marvelous testimony of God’s goodness and faithfulness.

Will you join me in NOT being an overcomer?