"Faith Claims Victory"

"O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember Thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill of Mizar." (Psalms 42:6) The real answer to feeling cast down or bewildered, is to set our eyes on Jesus, proclaiming all the mighty works that He has done; for He has defeated sin and death, taking not only our sins away, but taking the sting of death away from us also: because He is risen, we shall rise also, in Him. Therefore, why do we need to feel defeated by the things that come against us? Is it because we have little faith? or maybe, is it because we care too much for the things of this world? How about taking the sensible side of this natural reaction, and understand that we need God in every situation? Yes, that's it; we are poor and weak, and we need God's assistance to have victory, both with our lack of faith, and with our cares of this world. In other words, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13), is not just a verse that we have memorized, it is what we believe with all of our hearts. If ever there was something that shows the victory won in Christ, it is the great contrast of the suffering which was displayed upon that cross, and the triumph over sin and death that resulted from it. We must put our faith in Jesus Christ, because in Christ the victory is ours, because He has already won; as soon as we begin to assume that we have any chance of victory within ourselves, then we are going to become sorely dismayed and our soul will feel cast down by the weight of the things which Christ has lifted off of us. This should not need to happen, but it does, and it does because we are still very needy when it comes to walking in victory; which is mostly because we have not yet received our glorified bodies, and still tend to glorify this current body, now and again. So what do we do? We take our eyes off of ourselves, and we look to Jesus, the Word of God... "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." (Hebrews 11:1-3)