Victorious

Good news is a good thing. Would you agree? With good news comes hope, assurance and faith that happy endings are within reach and that burdens and sorrows can be lifted. With good news can come the confirmation that waiting was worth it. With good news, we can extract examples or guidelines for what to do the next time we encounter difficulties. I have good news for you! Tragedies, disappointments and complexities abound in our world and our personal lives, and our analysis of cause and effect can lead to frustration, despair and anger when we are not able to explain or make sense of the details. What we lose going through life’s struggles overwhelms us—materially, emotionally, mentally, socially and even spiritually. The good news is that there is a path through pain to the promise of breakthrough. There is a road to restoration. There is a song you can sing. There is a way to victory. In the upcoming chapters, you will journey to a renewed ability to triumph in the face of trials and tests. As you read, you may come to a refreshed view of how to interrogate challenges and hurt and interpret moments of victory in your life. Prepare for honesty. Look for insights. Search for encouragement. There is power in knowing how to overcome. In a certain season of the year, Tunes (my Northern Mockingbird) rises regularly in the morning and continues to sing in the darkness because it knows that singing closes the gap until dawn breaks. Singing has gotten it there before, and it will again. Tunes has learned that at the darkest of night—at 3 a.m.—it’s time to sing because daybreak will not be long in coming. Steadfast in character, Tunes is convicted by what it knows works and continues to do what a Northern Mockingbird was designed with purpose to do as a songbird—sing! Even when it rains. What is eye-opening is that when we seek God in times of trouble, we are not asking for data or information or even knowledge. We are asking for the source of what is our best guide and counsel—that which gives understanding. And that thing we request of Him is the most valuable endowment we could ask for. What we seek—what we need—is wisdom! It is the source of strengthen and surety amidst sorrow and the surreal. The wisdom we gain from God is not knowledge—it doesn’t merely inform us. Neither is this wisdom a skill—an ability to act. Nor is it created—brought about by our own surmising. Rather, this wisdom is gifted. It becomes available to us through a relationship. You do not need to labor vainly for it or pay for it with pain and hardship. If you need it, go to the One who is the source of it. Ask. Believe. Receive. As you move through each chapter of this book, know that you have come to the beginning of a renewed experience. I hope, as you read, you will have come to a refreshed view of how to interrogate the challenges you face and interpret the ways you experience moments of victory in your life. As you glanced at Job’s life, I believe you will have seen a little more of your own life in those pages. I would like to think you glimpsed a little more of God, too. You will have discovered that victory is more than declaring that God has (finally) “fixed” the problems you encounter. Victory, more deeply, is about consciously developing faith in God and even allowing Him to test the faith you claim to hold. To be victorious is to come to terms with how He wants you to more tightly focus your trust in Him and become wiser with regard to His will and His way. To know victory is to know or be reminded that through struggles, setbacks and stresses you became aware of God’s messages to you and that the principles of His purposes and His love for you hold true in every circumstance. As you shift into the higher gears of your transformation experience, keep growing in faith and continue to add trust. Keep climbing. Your love for God in response to His faithfulness is the fuel you need to help you shift upward as you develop true wisdom and build momentum in your victory experience, with added strength and surety. Because God is good and because He is merciful, you will be victorious. Take courage, and press on!