Day 11

 

Consider Him: Change How We Speak of this Battle


Hebrews 12:1-3- "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles,...fixing our eyes on Jesus...Consider Him who endured such opposition, so you will not grow weary and lose heart."

He sat alone in the dim quiet, his hands trembling as he tried once again to resist the pull that had undone him so many times before. He remembered the faith of his childhood, the whispered promises that God could carry him through anything, but now those words felt distant, unreachable, like a language he no longer knew how to speak. Still, somewhere beneath the weight of defeat, a fragile longing stirred — not for perfection, but for the courage to believe that grace might still meet him in the ruins of his struggle.

When we find ourselves entangled in this battle, we become hyper-focused to find the courage to fight the battle within us. We strive to figure out this perplexing puzzle. We are lost in a maze promised there is some way out, but we hit one dead end after another. Our minds become fixed on solving this recurring puzzle without success.

One dead end after another abandons us to the residence of shame, and joy is not our frame of mind. Our minds race to the agony of defeat again and again. There has to be a formula, we imagine. There must be a secret we are missing.

Then we read, “Consider Him who endured.” Surely, it can’t be this simple. Really? Is this really mind over matter? No, it’s more powerful than just reigning our thoughts in. It is much more a spiritual reality than it is a mental or psychological one.

It is trust, faith, and dependence. It is recognizing that these sins entangle us because we are lost without the One who has found us again and again. There is nothing we can do. We can’t depend on ourselves, because we fail repeatedly. We can’t trust we’ll make the right decisions. We will lose every time because we are weak without the One who won the final battle for us.

If there is a secret, it is this. We change how our thoughts speak to us about these battles. We listen to ourselves speak new words-words that declare freedom, deliverance, hope. We announce our complete dependence on Him who endured to give us endurance we lack. I proclaim that freedom from ______ (fill in the blank) is territory that has been promised to me. Now I declare it with my cloud of witnesses that surround me that because of Jesus this is land that will be taken through Him!

Declaration of Grace

I change the words I use to live in that freedom that has been promised to me in Christ. I am through with trying. I depend solely on Your faithfulness Lord God to give me the freedom You have promised. Each time I feel that urge, I will declare Your grace is sufficient in this moment of weakness, and I will depend on Your faithfulness to do what I can’t do myself!



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