Being More than a Conqueror
It’s taken me a lifetime to fully understand what it means and how to live the victorious life Jesus died to give us as believers. I remember my growing-up-spiritually years. I was a whiny kid and a less-than-confident teenager, a young wife and mother learning the ropes of responsibility. I was a good-doer attending church faithfully and really loved God with all my heart. But, I didn’t have a “conqueror” mindset. As I grew in my personal relationship with Christ, studying His Word and making every effort possible to serve Him wholeheartedly, I came to understand what it means to be “more than a conqueror”. Romans 8:37 says Christians are “more than conquerors” in this world. Maybe that’s far from how you feel today, but in Christ, that’s who we can be. We certainly need to get that indelibly imprinted on our hearts so that we get it, understand it and become it.
That verse is in response to the Apostle Paul’s questions before saying we are “more than conquerors”: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:35). And, then he replies in Romans 8:37: “NO, in all these things we are MORE than conquerors through Him Who loved us.” Sounds to me like Paul could have been right here with us during our situations today. He tells us we can be more than conquerors in the midst of hardships and right in the middle of a trial. Paul certainly proved it is possible. Being more than a conqueror means whatever the enemy uses to take us out, he fails every time.
It means we stop naming ourselves “forgotten, loser, mess-up, mistreated, etc.” It means we persevere to the other side of the trial and wait, expectantly, for our new name, “more than a conqueror”. When we keep our old names, identifying with our old stories, we make the name-changing process about us. Yet this overcoming process is not about us; it’s about God revealing His name to the world.
When we fully understand that Jesus came to give each of us a life of abundance (John 10:10), then we’ll see ourselves as more than a conqueror through Him. All the enemy wants to do is kill, steal and destroy what God wants us to have. He wants to diminish us – make us small-minded and small in spirit so we’ll live a small, frustrated life. Whatever your situation is today, God knows about it. He sees you and hears the cry of your heart. Welcome His overcoming love, grace and power. Live it. Own it. After all, you ARE more than a conqueror through Christ.