Sister2Sister from Celeste
You are from God, little children,
and have overcome them;
because greater is He who is in you
than he who is in the world.
~ 1 John 4:4
Good morning dear sister!
I hope that your day is off! Off to a great start, that is! The verse above is a great morning verse because it reminds us of Whose we are! What can this day hold for us that we can’t overcome with our Father on our side?
As a grandparent, it gives me such pleasure to watch my grandchildren at play. Their whole attention gets wrapped up in the object at hand; they are utterly absorbed and not distracted by whatever is going on around them. They live in the moment, unaware of the passage of time, schedules and deadlines. They love the work of their hands and will gladly tell you all the wonders of their creations.
Yet, when something goes wrong or a toy is broken, who do they come running to to fix things? They naturally run to the one who loves them! The one who is caring for them. The one who they trust. They don’t even question whether or not it can be fixed; of course you can! In their eyes, you’re the all powerful, can-do-anything mom/dad/brother/sister/grandparent/friend… you’re family.
The Apostle John talks a lot about God’s family in his letters to the church. Christians are not just the ‘church body’, but a glorious family with one, all powerful, Father! Remember the childhood taunt “my daddy is bigger/stronger/smarter than your daddy!”? Well, as Christians, we have the biggest, strongest, smartest Daddy of them all! And He calls us His “little children”.
Because of our relationship, we have the right to run to our Father when things get broken in our lives too. Sometimes it’s a catastrophe that shakes our world, but, more often, it’s the little everyday things that pick away at us; like worry, fear, doubt, disbelief, negativity, ungratefulness, envy, bad habits. These are not the fruits of God’s spirit, but fruits of the spirits of this world.
As children of His family, we have inherited His Spirit into our very beings! We can victoriously dwell in the attributes of our Father’s nature; love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, patience, self-control, kindness and faithfulness. Again I declare, being adopted as children of the most high God, we have supernaturally inherited these characteristic traits from our Heavenly Father!
We are assured that we don’t have to succumb to the spirits of this world; that is, worry, doubt, fear, disbelief, negativity, ungratefulness, anger, envy, bad habits. God’s Word promises that we will overcome them because He who lives in us (the Holy Spirit), is greater than he (little ‘h’) who lives in the world.
1 John 5:5 asks ‘and who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?’ No capital letters in ‘who’, ‘one’ or ’he’ because God is not talking about Himself…. He’s talking about you and about me. It is God living in us if we believe that Jesus is the Son of God. It is God living in us that enables us to overcome our spiritual enemies!
As we grow older we seem to complicate situations or we justify our sinful feelings. Maybe we just want to handle things ourselves or not bother God with the little things. But we really need to have a child-like attitude and trust the One who cares for our souls to make things right, every time.
Our Father God made a way for us to overcome the evils of this world through believing in Jesus Christ, His son! We express our faith in him by acting like we believe it! Remember whose child you are! Run to your Father when you need something fixed! He is waiting for you!
I pray that you’ll have a great week of overcoming!