We Forgot You
Ever heard that hurtful phrase before? It can be one of those times when our parent forgot to pick us up at school or be at our piano or dance recital or baseball game. Or an important phone call was expected, but never came because someone forgot us?
I know those words and how deeply hurtful they can be. In fact, just last Friday, I heard those words. I sat in a medical room in just a gown for over an hour. The physician’s assistant had told me: “You’re next — right after the patient next door!”
Yay! I’ll be out of here in a few minutes. But, no, after hearing doors open and shut, and the paper on the exam table being torn off in other rooms, they forgot me. Next time, I’ll go check to see what’s going on in my skimpy gown and all!
Episodes like that can sure get us into a spiritual, mental and physical funk! At one time or another, we all have been there. I am well acquainted with “funks”!
Those were times when I was OVERCOME with a “Woe is me!” attitude. God’s voice wasn’t coming in strong and clearly. Then, through the maze of all that funk, I came to my senses. I realized I was on the wrong team. The right one was being on the team of overcomers aka conquerors — MORE than conquerors!
Being an overcomer and conqueror is not for the faint-hearted or defeated who give up and throw in the towel. Overcomers are for the determined, the above and beyond thinkers and doers.
In the seasons when we feel unseen is exactly when we realize we are more than conquerors. That’s when “overcomers” becomes a part of our new name — if we don’t give up.
Let’s not miss the questions that precede what the Apostle Paul asks of us. “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 he answers the question for us: Romans 8:37 says that “in all things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” Right in the middle of all those times of loneliness, feeling forgotten and broken, we are told that we can be more than conquerors.
Being more than a conqueror means whatever the enemy intended to use to take us out — whatever was meant to destroy us — didn’t destroy us at all. It all turned out for God receiving the glory for our determination to be a conqueror!
Our stories become a testimony about what God is doing and has done for us. We can flip the script on those lies from the enemy. We ARE NOT forgotten. We are adopted and always remembered and loved by God and His ongoing faithfulness. We are MORE than conquerors.
Paul says our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (v.18). Imagine the delight our Heavenly Father must feel when He sees us graduate from “Overcoming School” and we are awarded with our new title: “More than a Conqueror”!
So let’s soldier up by not giving up and assigning ourselves some “woe is me” name badge! No way, José! Let’s change those defeated thoughts and actions to Child of the King! We ARE more than conquerors!