Victims

As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:37 NIV
One of the great dangers of our society is that it can very easily make us feel that we are victims,
victims of any number things: persons, forces, situations, you name it. And when we feel like
that, there are two results: we feel sorry for ourselves, and we feel helpless, And feeling that
way, we feel that we have a right to indulge ourselves and that no one can justly expect anything
of us.
Did you notice the key word in that paragraph? It is “feel.” We have become controlled by our
emotions. If you “feel” that something is so, then it is so. Not so! The Holy Spirit wants to enable
us to take control of our feelings, and to make something of our lives.
We see this so clearly in Joseph. If there was ever anybody who had the right to feel victimized,
it was he. He was a victim of his father’s parental favoritism, of his brothers’ jealous cruelty, of
his brother Reuben’s failed good intentions, of his mistress’s lies, of his master’s refusal to
believe him, of the butler’s forgetfulness. I am sure that, being human, he had his dark days in
that long thirteen years, but it is clear that he never let his emotions rule him. Why not? It was
because he knew that God, not the victimizers, was in control of his life, and that God’s purposes
are good. If God never gave up on Joseph, Joseph never gave up on God. The result? Joseph did
not fall prey to the temptation to self-indulgence. Instead, and he took it upon himself to act
responsibly. His circumstances did not rule Joseph; Joseph took charge of his circumstances.
What you can do may seem very small. That doesn’t matter; let the Holy Spirit fill you, and do it,
whatever it is. Do it with the Spirit’s energy and the Spirit’s integrity. You may never see the
results this side of eternity, but you will make a difference – in your own life, if nowhere else.
We are not victims, we are conquerors, more than conquerors!