We’ve been spending time considering what it means to be an overcomer. Jesus tells us to be overcomers. We are  to join Him in “overcoming the world” (John 16.33). He tells us to “take courage.” Yes, it takes courage to be an overcomer. It also takes faith. The beloved disciple John tells us in his first letter that “faith is the victory that overcomes the world” (1 Jn. 5.4,5).

It seems so simple, yet, why is it so hard?

Our natural inclination is to succumb to the circumstances around us because they’re in our faces. They get hold of our feelings, and that in turn overpowers our reason. We cannot exercise faith when we’re disconnected from the sure and certain knowledge of Jesus’ victory at Calvary. “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1.18).

We must keep focused on Jesus and His glorious victory!

It’s our inheritance as believers in Christ that we appropriate His power to overcome when we exercise faith in what He did, and what He promises us. This means that we are imbued by the Holy Spirit to receive the help we need to be winners and not losers. Paul writes to the New Testament church to “run the race so as to win” (1 Cor. 9.24). We need to remember this. You can’t run to win when your mind is ruled by your feelings.

Overcoming is first believing, then having faith in that belief, and then facing the tribulations of the day with the full confidence of Christ. So, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4.13).