Pursuing Victory as a Christian in the face of all challenges

𝑷𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒖𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑽𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒔

For various reasons, it appears that followers of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, may have lost sight of our call to pursue victory in fulfilment of Christ’s command for us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Let me be frank: the setbacks we have experienced, the prayers that as yet appear unanswered, the unrelenting pressure from a world system in rebellion against the God we serve, the power that appears concentrated in the hands of a small number of depraved and grossly wicked people, the obstacles that daily we face, these and perhaps more may lead us to an inner fear, if not a verbalised conclusion, that victory is not a reality for us during our time on earth.

And this is why we need to revisit the context in which Jesus told his followers to pray for victory.

The context? Christ, though completely innocent of any charge, was on a straight path to the most appalling, shameful and excruciatingly painful end to his earthly life.

How, therefore, could he be telling his first followers and, by extension, all of us who came after, that we should pray for victory on this earth that was about to claim his blood in death on a Roman cross?

And it is here that our world view is challenged to the extreme. We are called and encouraged to see things from another perspective, that enables us to look ahead, through the battles, to victory.

In our daily praying, living and practical action, much of it routine, mundane, ordinary and not particularly world changing, we are to live with our eyes fixed, as it were, on “the cross”.

Not because this is a symbol of death but of resurrection life.

That is an absolute truth for the followers of Jesus Christ, because when we think of “the cross” it encompasses more than his violent and unspeakably cruel execution to act as a substitute for all of our breaches of God’s law.

The term “the cross” brings to mind the wooden structure to which Christ was nailed through his hands and his feet. however, when we refer to “the cross” now while we might think of the symbol of that “old rugged cross”, we are speaking of a concept that is much bigger in every sense.

When we think of and look to “the cross”, with the benefit of 2000 years of hindsight, in our minds eye we can capture an awesome vista in addition to that bloody scene of a man dying nailed to two pieces of wood.

We also see an empty tomb, a divine man who came back from having been among the dead in Hades; who was seen physically by perhaps thousands of contemporary eye witnesses, who returned to his place of supreme authority, as Co-Regent with God our Almighty Father, directing all of time and eternity towards their predetermined outcome.

In the face of all of our challenges as we look to “the cross” we are in fact “looking unto Jesus.“

So this is our world view: since Jesus, Messiah, King of the universe, Saviour of all humanity made it clear to his followers that, despite his trajectory towards the violent ending of his life, we should pray for and work towards victory.

This means that the full force of the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is directed to and through us so that we may play our part in bringing about his purpose on Earth.

Let’s pursue victory as Christians in the face of all challenges!