One of the easiest things in life is to forget is where our next breath originates. It is part of human nature to want to rise to a challenge, meet it head on and emerge victorious.
We want so badly to believe we are capable, and that we know, deep down, what we're doing. We want to take life by the steering wheel and navigate our way soundly and efficiently through whatever obstacles arise.
But life is anything but a smooth Sunday drive. There are simply too many variables that are far beyond our control to think we belong in the driver's seat.
And that line of thinking penetrates down to the very breath we take. Does anyone stay awake all night making our own hearts beat or making sure we take the right number of breaths? Of course not.
Yet, with the most basic fundamentals of life so ridiculously out of our control, why is it that we would pretend to know the best course for ourselves in every other area?
Revelation 12 breaks it down into the most basic foundation of salvation. All mankind is separated from God because of sin.
It's a condition that caused a breech from Him in the Garden that no mere man could build a bridge back over.
Satan, it says in today's verses, accuses us day and night of what we are obviously guilty. And for as much as I might want to respond, I can't fight that battle on my own accord. I am a sinner. And I can't resolve that on my own.
But the redemption in this verse comes from outside, from the same source that determines my next breath -- the Supreme defender. The same source that does belong in the driver's seat.
It says they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
The blood Christ shed on the cross not only wiped my sin off the record, but it also cast my No. 1 accuser down.
It is by the word of my testimony, the simple idea that I was lost in sin, but I have been redeemed -- made of worth by the only one in the universe who can be deemed worthy -- that I find victory over sin. There's nothing anyone can do to deserve it, but it is available to anyone who wants it.
It's Jesus who fights our battles, who defeats our enemies and who protects our way. While this world will have plenty of variables to throw at us, we have the blessing of resting on the one constant there is. We are able to seek His guidance through prayer and through His word and know His direction is sound. But it is on us to recognize He knows better than we.
The clincher comes in the tail end of the verse. It says "they did not love their lives to the death."
Because I have been redeemed, I have to recognize the idea that someone paid the price to redeem me.
And in paying that price, Jesus obtained my life. It is a two-sided contract and in accepting the simple terms on my side, it can't be forgotten that my life is no longer my own. It's not my life. It's His.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says we are not our own. We were bought at a price and therefore we should glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits.
And why would I want it to be mine anyway? I can't even make my own heart beat.
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What I'm reading presently: Revelation, Numbers, Luke, Proverbs and Psalms.
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