During the first few days of this year, I was working late nights, overwhelmed and stressed out of my mind because of work. One morning, I was doing my devotion and the Lord showed me this scripture in Romans 3:38. It says,

“No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.” (NLT)

I was shoo-ked! (pronounced shook ed) Meaning to be in extreme shock. You mean I have overwhelming victory and I did not know it? First off, what does overwhelm mean? It means “very great in amount”. Synonyms include massive, enormous, intense, profuse, vast, huge to name a few. Imagine you have massive victory because of Christ. I was like “why am I stressing out?” I already have victory, not just for Quarter/Year end but my entire life. Not just a small or regular amount of victory but a vast, enormous and massive amount of victory. My victory is too huge to calculate, too vast to capture, too intense to understand.

We are His children, so victory is our birthright. I will say that again “VICTORY IS YOUR BIRTHRIGHT”. If you knew that the outcome of every situation you face was and is victory would you still worry, be anxious or stressed out? This time last year, I was admitted in the hospital with a high risk pregnancy,, not knowing what would happen. Nurses checking my blood pressure every hour, 24-hour monitoring, baby on the heart monitor to make sure she and I would survive. Now fast forward to today, I am alive and well, and the baby is not a baby anymore but a 10-month-old crawler. I remember the day in the hospital I told my husband I was done, and they should just take the baby out and whatever happens happens. I was tired of the hassle. He said to me, “Why are you giving up when you have seen what God can do? Don’t you trust Him anymore? It then hit me that I was hurting God by not trusting Him after He had given me plenty reasons to do so.

We just went through and are still going through a pandemic in the world today but, as children of God, we have victory. Not just a mediocre victory that can be changed by the circumstances around us, but overwhelming victory. As Christians, we have been told that despite all these things; meaning heartache, failure, death, pain, suffering, we have victory. Knowing that God has given you victory will make you start acting like an overcomer. Your attitude changes, you start looking at situations the right way, God’s way. You look at it from the top of the mountain and not the valley. When you start each day knowing you have victory, your outlook will change. A prince walks around knowing that even though he hurts, he is still a prince. He has the advantage over the normal folks. He suffers through the same thing normal people do but his version is different because his vision is different. He does not approach it as suffering but as a learning opportunity.

Our vision needs to be tempered with victory. That way, every situation becomes something to learn from. Think about your Christian life as a journey. Whatever happens on that journey should not derail us but we should use it as a stepping stone to the next level. To do that, we need to start by first understanding and accepting this promise, meditating on it and making it our lives mantra. Secondly, we need to change our vision to change our version of life. That way, when we meet bumps on the way of our life's journey, we tell ourselves, “I have overwhelming victory”, and move on. Johnathan Swift, an Irish Essayist and Poet once said, “Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” Only God can help you do that.

Understanding and living in the victory promise of God makes your life so much better. Stress is reduced, focus is sharpened, goals are met, and everything falls into place. Remember these words “For everyone born of God is victorious and overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has conquered and overcome the world—our [continuing, persistent] faith [in Jesus, the Son of God].”