"Victorious Faith"

"Thou breakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to the people inhabiting the wilderness." (Psalms 74:14) Just so I don't mess this up, I need to mention one other thing about Abraham that makes him a little different than most: Abraham was chosen by God! Not that he was any different from those other people in Ur at the time, but that he was called by God because God chose him for a certain purpose. I really don't know if we totally understand the depth of what that means, because it's not based on our works or our righteousness in any way. James gives us a pretty good argument for living out faith by works; which to a certain degree is absolutely certainly true. But our righteousness in no way is based upon works, it is based upon the faith that we put in God. Did Abraham lack faith? You bet he did; he had doubts about God giving him a son, he had doubts about God fulfilling His promise, and he had doubts about God protecting him in foreign lands. Not that his doubts weren't an issue with God, because they were; but they were not enough of an issue to discount the faith that God accounted to Abraham. We make things so very complicated, when in reality, we just need to walk in the grace that we have been given, and stop worrying about whether we are good enough for God. We can never be good enough for God; not on our own, that is for sure! We have been accounted righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ; God's Master Card of righteousness has been awarded to all that will receive Him, and any righteousness that we might have, we have because it's on that card. That might be a strange way to see it, but it's pretty much how it works in God's economy of faith. Now that we get that, how do we get victorious? Well for beginners, we can't! What you say? You say I can't win? Yes and no. We can win in Christ, but outside of Christ we fail; epic fail! That was Paul's point of Romans 7:24, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Because in reality we all have already been delivered by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. His righteousness has been accounted onto us, and now we get to walk in His righteousness. So when you are questioned on the issue of righteousness, you pull out your Master Card, which by the way has no limit, and pay your debt, a debt that Christ has already paid...  "Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father." For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children." (Romans 8:12-16) NLT