Don’t Let Yourself Become a Spiritual Defeatist

As I’m writing this, the World Series is still in progress, moving back to Houston for Game Six. Hopefully by the time you’re reading this, Atlanta fans will be celebrating a rare championship and not mourning over another disappointment from one of our sports teams. Over the years it has become easy for the fans in our area to develop a somewhat defeatist attitude. We have had our hopes dashed far too many times. Even when one of our teams has done well and seemed to be on its way to a big win, all too often there has been the inability to finish the job. We have become accustomed to our teams finding a way to fulfill the reverse of a familiar idiom and “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”

If we’re not careful, we can develop a similar attitude about our spirituality and our walk with Christ. We can find ourselves becoming defeatists when it comes to the battles we face both in our own personal lives and in relation to our culture and the world in which we live. We have been disappointed so often that we almost expect to lose. Unfortunately, such a spirit can result in our losing hope, as well as in a lack of faith and effort as we deal with those conflicts.

Concerning our own spiritual journey, we can easily become discouraged by focusing on the numerous times we’ve let ourselves down and let God down by giving in to temptation, acting in a way that we knew wasn’t pleasing to the Lord, or failing to do what we knew God wanted us to do. We’ve been guilty of not being able to stay on course when obstacles arose. We’ve stumbled more times than we care to remember. There have been occasions when we were on the verge of victory, only to blow it.

However, the Lord provides both forgiveness for those past miscues and strength to face our new challenges. The Bible doesn’t depict believers as those who are constantly suffering defeat, but rather as “more than conquerors” through Christ (Romans 8:37). We don’t have to be losing those spiritual battles all the time. And we shouldn’t be. We don’t have to falter before we get to the finish line. We can trust that “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it” (Philippians 1:6). We’re also assured that God “is able to keep you from stumbling” (Jude 24). We can’t win in our own strength, but as we trust the Lord, rely on His power, and keep faithfully pressing forward, He can enable us to experience more victories than defeats.

But what about the “culture wars” and other conflicts we face with our world today? Evil and ungodliness seem to be growing while believers and Biblical values are being increasingly marginalized. We’re being told that our views are outdated and on the wrong side of history. Have we lost? Should we just cloister ourselves in our churches while licking our wounds and waiting for this life to be over. No! The Church may be suppressed by society at times, it’s numbers may dwindle to a faithful remnant, and it may face persecution, but it is still the victorious Bride of Christ. No matter how dark the world gets, we can still be an effective light for Christ. We can still have a significant impact on the lives of individuals by warning about evil and proclaiming the good news of Christ whether society as a whole listens to us or not.

We may lose some battles, but we know who wins the war. We will reign victoriously with Christ for eternity and through Him we are conquerors even now.