When Weaknesses Become Strongholds...

I'm trying something new. Again. I'm trying to do something differently and change the way I go about everyday life. And while I'm so excited about the way this could end up, I'm afraid I'm going to fail miserably.

Change is hard. I'm a creature of habit who doesn't want to change her habits. But also... I'm a woman who doesn't want to be writing in this blog til she's 87 about how she wants to change... yet... somehow never does it.

I know I'm not the only one with this problem.

As humans, we pull out excuses for our failure. "It's hard!" we say, as if that's somehow reason enough not to put our all into the effort. Or "It's not in my nature!" Of course it isn't. If it were in our nature, we wouldn't need to change, would we? And then, perhaps the most cutting of all: "I just don't have what it takes." Obviously, since I can't succeed, there must be something wrong with me. This is a load of hooey. On our own, without God's support, yes, we're ineffective and insignificant. But in Christ, our victories have been won for us already. "This is the victory that has overcome the world: even our faith," John writes.

When we consent to tell ourselves these lies, and then consent to believe them, we're giving our weaknesses more power over us as well as making ourselves less effective in defeating them. We have to rely in faith on Christ as The Overcomer, and on his strength as we meet our weaknesses in battle. Why allow our weaknesses to become strongholds? "Everyone born of God overcomes the world," John says. Drawing strength from this sonship of the Most High God, we too are overcomers.