God's Power to Overcome

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." (1 John 4:4)

What reassurance! As God's children we have a power within us that can defeat anything the enemy sends our way. That means we have within us, the ability to stand against anything Satan sends to try to trip us up.

So, why does it seem like we always fall for things?

I wonder if sometimes this happens because of how we try to handle these situations. We set ourselves up to fall to the schemes of the evil one.

When Satan tries to trip us up, we try to avoid falling by what we can do ourselves.

We decide.

We try to use willpower.

We try to white-knuckle it through to the other side.

And that usually fails.

We try to do this ourselves, when that isn't how we were meant to make it through.

There's a reason why we were given the Holy Spirit when we chose to surrender everything to Christ. There's a reason why God has left us with His Word so we can know Him. There's a reason why God wants to have a relationship with us.

It's because that is what gives us the ability to stand against Satan's schemes. The Holy Spirit in us gives us the power to defeat Him.

We're not supposed to stand in our own strength. We're supposed to stand in God's strength. That's the only way we'll have victory.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9)