When Victory Comes

Luke 4:1-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. (Luke 4:1-2)

YOU ARE BEING SENT INTO a world that may or may not like the salt and light you offer. Jesus described it as sending lambs among wolves (Luke 10:3), but you have no need to worry. God does a good job of caring for his lambs. Even so, you will not always find the terrain easy and may face adversity. Some of it may even come from within yourself.

Perhaps that surprises you, but if you know yourself well, it probably doesn’t. You likely have enough experience to know that certain situations can stretch you seemingly beyond your limits, some may make you prone to compromise, and some will awaken temptations you thought you had long overcome. If you’re still waiting for a time of victory in these things, however, you will need to understand the dynamics of the battle. You will not overcome the wolves—either those howling inside you or those lashing out at you on the outside—if your commitment to God is still up in the air. Your real battles are won before you get onto the battlefield.

We see this in the ministry of Jesus, both in his temptation after his baptism and his excruciating night in the garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion. We see it in Israel’s entry into the Promised Land but before its first battle at Jericho, and after David’s anointing but before his reign. These times of trial, testing, and temptation were intense but necessary, significant statements of commitment in which the purity of faith was tried by fire. Jesus and many of God’s faithful servants won their battles before human eyes ever saw them. We need to do the same.

Prepare your heart for what’s to come. The victory of Jesus has already empowered you, but you will need to win your battles before the heat of combat ever approaches. Know who you are and the nature of the world you are going into, and walk in the power you’ve been given.

{Jesus, you won your victories long before the Cross, even before the messages and miracles that still amaze us. May I win battles today that will let me take territory for your Kingdom tomorrow. Strengthen me like steel to serve in wisdom, power, and love. Amen.