I thank God-through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God . . .” (Romans 7: a,b). I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4: 13, NKJV.
Gracious God, please convince us that with You in our lives – living in, and working with, and through us, taking full control of our minds, we can be “more than conquerors.” In the mighty name of Jesus the Christ we humbly pray. Amen.
I found a rather short, but what I considered complete, definition of the word invincible, that I liked and will share with you: “Incapable of being overcome or defeated; unconquerable.”
This is true of Christ and of the person who is “one” with Christ. Fear could not detain Him. Slander could not debase Him. Death could not restrain Him. He was, and is, the One and Only, God-Man. And the good news is that He is searching for men and women, boys and girls, to re-create this same invincible character in us!
It is obvious that Paul was speaking from personal experience when he penned these words. I say this because of statements such as these: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (1: 21); “Yet in all these things (persecution, hunger, death, and such things), we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8: 37); “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4: 6,7). These are statements of faith penned by one who became invincible because His life was wrapped up in the life of Christ – the only Man who has conquered every foe!
This was not only the privilege of Saul turned Paul, it is also the privilege of every person who realizes that without Christ we can do nothing, but that with Christ “nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1: 37). This calls for the freeing of our minds; because in this period of earth’s history, our minds seem to have become captive to the thus saith the media.
How many imaginary needs have been created in order to put new products on the market. Underarm hair all of a sudden became gross, because someone or a group of people wanted to sell hair removal creams or waxes, or patches. Thick eyebrows needed to be picked, narrowed, or replaced by permanent false eyebrows, because someone said that you looked better using their product. We find ourselves putting all kinds of harmful substances on and in our bodies because the almighty media says we should. At times it seems that we have stopped thinking for ourselves and have turned our thought process over to the media. Tell us what to eat, drink, buy and do, and we will obey, we seem to be saying! Is it any wonder that we have become, to some extent, a helpless society unable to make decisions for ourselves?
But thanks be to God for His wonderful, inspired and inspiring, enabling, Word! How much more confident, and fearless, and joyful, a nation we would be if only we would surrender our minds to the influence of the Holy Spirit, instead of to the influence of the media.
In Paul’s day he was also bombarded with the opinion of others,;but with the knowledge provided him by the Sacred Scriptures, he could make the following declarations: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1: 18). It took a lot of will power for Paul to stand up to both Jews and Greeks and present a crucified Savior: “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness . . .” (22, 23). And with a sound mind he took a stand for what he believed: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (Romans 1: 16)!
What made Paul so brave and outspoken? His mind, once very Pharisaical, had since been surrendered to the Holy Spirit of God. He no longer lived according to the philosophy of men. From the day he was thrown off of his high horse, and asked the Lord the question: “‘Lord, what do you want me to do” (Acts 9: 6a)? it was no longer Paul, but “Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2: 20). The “mind of Christ” was now “in Paul” (Philippians 2: 5). That is the formula for becoming invincible!