More Than A Conqueror
Hi J____,Mike...Please read attached, which is an email exchange between a troubled man and you.... after, or during reading my previous email of despair. At least long enough to get the idea that the attached has helped me considerably.I have no idea why I looked in my Bible file and chose this email that I have had on file for at least a couple of years. But, it has helped to bring my understanding up somewhat... that my falling apart is just a temporary thing that must be coped with. That I must endure 'til the end.There is no turning back. This is not a battle of the wits... but a battle with the seven-headed beast, who may have twenty heads, depending on how long we live.I can't believe how quickly we can be turned from joy to utter despair.
I am sorry that I dumped such a truck-load on you... pouring out what is on my heart... but I think I can rise above it... with your patience.Thanks, Mike, for hanging in there for me.
J____
I have read both of your letters and the attachment,
I too, am aware of my own shortcomings, but I can say honestly and truthfully that sin is no longer my master, and while I still reside in a body of "sinful flesh", I am finding much comfort in these words:
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
I feel certain that you are now aware that all things are of God and as you told me yourself in your last letter:
"Everything, every situation, every person, every character, every flaw, every weakness, every strength, every failure, every win, every defeat, of everyone who ever existed... is us."
Our willing and our doing are real, but they are caused by God. They are His achievement and not our own, and yet we are told to "Work out you own salvation, because He is working in each of us individually.
My prayers are with you both. You will come through this time of despair victorious, "more than a conqueror."
Your brother in Christ,
Mike
"Everything, every situation, every person, every character, every flaw, every weakness, every strength, every failure, every win, every defeat, of everyone who ever existed... is us."
Well, it so happens that God has arranged things so that Rom 8:37 is the outcome of your life and mine. So the despair you now feel is good for you in the long run. We must all be overcome with the impossibility of getting a camel through the eye of a needle before we can acknowledge that what God is doing in us is the impossible, at least for us on our own power.
You are actually in a very good spiritual spot when you are humbled to the point of being able to see your faults. What you cannot do is listen to the Adversary tell you that your situation cannot be overcome by Christ in you. If indeed He is in you, then you will not listen to that lie. But whether you do or do not is already written in His book. In the meantime we are admonished to:
Php 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Why are we told to do what we have been told elsewhere we cannot do on our own? For that very reason, we work out our own salvation because we realize it is really Christ in us doing it. But He isn't working out your salvation in me. He is working out my salvation in me and yours in you, as the very next verse asserts:
Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
My prayers are with you both. You will come through this time of despair victorious, "more than a conqueror."
Your brother in Christ,
Mike