We are not lifting ourselves up.
We are lifting up God's plan for salvation.
You can't have that victory without working the whole plan. It's not a piecemeal operation.
I can't pick and choose the parts I like and throw out the rest and then expect to make it through "no matter what comes my way".
I often think upon the resources that God has given us to keep us.
He began with forgivenness and the admonition to "Put what's past behind you and reach forward..." No matter what you have done in the past, you can move forward with a clean slate in the sight of God.
He changes our heart. Salvation is a work of God in the heart. When I got saved, my whole perspective on life changed. My ambitions changed. My desires changed. My focus changed. I still had a life to live, but the motivating factors were totally different from what they had been.
He gives us His word as instruction for how to live.
He gives us His Holy Spirit to apply the word.
He gives us the support of the body of Christ -- which is a whole list of resources in itself: pastors, godly examples and testimonies, friendship and fellowship with godly people, and much more.
He gives us the protection of the standards His word and His Spirit have raised up. We are not always in a quandary over some choices because we made the ONE choice to separate from sin and put God first. When we did that, we allowed HIM to make the choices in every other area of our lives of what we will do and not do in order to protect that one choice to be His.
We learned early on the pull and power of "self" and realized how important it was to "die" to self, be cleansed of the carnal nature, and submit to doing things the way God ordained instead of being our own god and creating our own belief system.
As Ephesians 6:11-17 puts it:
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints
We don't have to be defeated, but we must, must, must remember always that the battle is not ours alone. We are given the resources to fight it and we cannot expect to win it when we begin to cast those resources aside and try to fight it with our own strength and our own wisdom.
The first step toward defeat is a step away from any of the resources God has given us to maintain our victory.
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