The Bleeding Edge of Victory

The Bleeding Edge of Victory

Thank you, Father, for these tears that have carried me to the depth of your love. How could I have known your fullness without the emptiness, your acceptance without the rejection, your forgiveness without my failure, our togetherness without that dreadful loneliness. You have brought me to Gethsemane, and oh, the joy of finding you already there! Amen.
~ Bonnie Barrows Thomas

When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

~ Psalm 34:17-18

G_d has no need.  "Need is a creature word," said our friend A.W.... And friends, we are creatures - and we have desperate need of the One who has no need.

One of my great encouragements is to be friends with those who were personally acquainted with A. W. Tozer. This man, who knew God so intimately, had days when he was so discouraged he felt he could not continue as a minister. A man who instructed thousands in the deep things of God often felt he was a miserable failure.

~Erwin W. Lutzer (1941- ) 

What is the bleeding edge of victory in our lives?  

Failure.

Now, don't even for one second, dear reader, misread that failure is an acceptable option in our lives.  We cannot hold on to the right to failure, it is just a truth of our existence.  Our brains and bodies are a law at work against a perfect life of walking in His Spirit.

Failure, though, does seem to be the pathway to victory in our lives.  Each time we blow it in some area, it shows us the desperate depth of our need for Him to actually run our lives; to actually control what we do with our hands, feet, mouths, brains and eyes.

Further, as we walk with Him, we begin to be convinced that the cost of failure is just not something that we can (or even care to try to) afford.  As He begins to transform us the through the renewing of our minds we learn that the only way we really want our lives spent is by and for Him and His purposes.  It is the only reasonable choice.  We no longer want to spend or be spent on anything else.

So, how do we get to this place where even failure looks more like victory in our walk with Him?  How about we simply trust Him - and put zero confidence in our own ability to try to please him in our own power?

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know Him and the power of his resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

~ Philippians 3:7-11

Then, as we take on His righteousness - from that firm foundation - let us then fight with all the might that He gives us to destroy any remaining confidence in our own self to fight the problem of evil in our own lives.  Let us kick at the darkness generated by our own brains and yield to the light of His Word in our lives. – Makala Doulos is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a new member of the Freedom Fighter contributors.

Team YOU: Genesis 46-48; Proverbs 19; Matthew 13:1-30

Motivations: To love is not to experience a particular sensation in the heart; that emotion is but a reflex phenomenon, a detail of love at the least. To love is to wish for the good, it is to give the best of one's self for the good of another; it does not mean grasping for one's self; love means giving one's self. Maurice Landrieux

Practice to Remember: Level 1: Ephesians 1:15-16; Level 2: Ephesians 1:15-23

Powered Up: Prayer among evangelical Christians is always in danger of degenerating into a glorified gold rush. Almost every book on prayer deals with the “get” element mainly. How to get things we want from God occupies most of the space. Now, we gladly admit that we may ask for and receive specific gifts and benefits in answer to prayer, but we must never forget that the highest kind of prayer is never the making of requests. Prayer at its holiest moment is the entering into God to a place of such blessed union as makes miracles seem tame and remarkable answers to prayer appear something very far short of wonderful by comparison. – A. W. Tozer