Defeated Christians

This phrase came up in my spirit this morning as I was praying “Defeated Christians”.  We know whole heartedly that God cannot be defeated.  He is the Alpha and Omega the first and the last so if He is in us, how can we be defeated? The answer is you and me.

You probably thought I was going to say Satan but he can only defeat you, if you allow it.  I am not saying you won’t have hard times or be knocked down, but you choose defeat.  If you read the story of Job, he suffered great loss, financial devastation, and sickness but Job was never defeated. Job kept God first and he continued to praise God during his time of sorrow and in his time of need.

When we get saved we tend to think everything is going to be perfect in our lives from here on out. We think we won’t have anymore difficulties or pain in our lives because we now live for Jesus Christ.   The enemy uses our ignorance here to attack us with the following 3 things.  The enemy is made up of Satan, the world, and your flesh.  We give Satan way too much credit, he is not responsible for every wrong thing that happens in your life.  The 3 things I want to talk about are three things we choose to allow to defeat us.

1. Doubt and Fear – The minute something doesn’t go the way we think it should or it is not as easy as we think it should be.  We let doubt move in like storm clouds rolling in before the storm.  These clouds cause everything to look dark and gloomy and we can no longer see the sun.  We know the sun is still there but we cannot see it because the clouds have blocked our view.  Fear makes a lot of noise like thunder when doubt rolls in.  Fear, like thunder, is meant only to be a warning of something to come.  In a storm, thunder, is a warning that lightning is near.  Fear is not always our enemy sometimes it can be just a warning that something worse is out there.  Fear is our enemy only when we let it stop us dead in our tracks.  If you are outside and you hear thunder and you don’t take cover, you may get struck by lightning. In the bible God tells us not to fear because he is with us.   He is our cover and when doubt and fear move in, we need to take cover in God.  We need to draw near to him and cling to him during the storm.  Just as the sun is high above the storm clouds and thunder that roll in, our God is high above our storm still watching over us.
2. Comparison – Comparison is like the wind in a storm you can’t see it but it can destroy and disturb everything in it’s path.  Once doubt and fear have rolled in then we begin to compare ourselves to others.  We view someone else’s success in their life or their ministry as our failure.  We say things like why can’t my ministry be as big as theirs?  Why don’t I get as many likes and followers as they do? Why are things so much easier for them than me? Why do they get to have the nice house, cars, money in the bank, and I don’t?  Once the winds of comparison start blowing through your life the clouds of doubt grow larger and darker and the thunder rolls even louder because the fear is now even greater than before.
3. Acceptance – Acceptance is the lightning strike in the storm because once you accept defeat from doubt and fear, comparison then acceptance will strike and burn your ministry and faith to the ground.

We as Christians sometimes spend our entire lives on this earth rebuilding our ministries over and over because we let the same storms destroy them.  We let doubt and fear move in and obscure our view of God and our ministry.  Then the winds of comparison begin to loosen everything we have built in our lives until it falls apart and we have no covering left, because we lost sight of our ministry.  Once we have no covering the lightning of acceptance burns our ministry to the ground.  We say things like well it wasn’t meant to be, I guess.  That is a lie straight from Satan’s mouth.  If God told you to do then it is meant to be.  Everyone who is saved has a ministry for God.  Your ministry is your way of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is not always from a pulpit.  Don’t let doubt, fear, or comparison tear your ministry apart until all that is left is for the lightning of acceptance to burn it to the ground.  If your ministry reaches one person then it is a success in the eyes of God.

Let’s pray today when the clouds of doubt and fear roll in that we cling to God in those storms.  You may feel alone and you may not see God in that moment, but remember it is only the storm clouds that have obscured your view of Him.  He is still high above that storm watching over you.  I believe he rejoices when we make it through each storm just as he did with Job.

Thank you for reading and please share!!