Victory Not Defeat

“You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength, who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. Those living far away fear your wonders; where morning dawns and evening fades you call forth songs of joy.”
Psalm 65:5-8

I have been struggling with a phrase that we’ve been using a lot lately, at work and everyday life. The phrase is “It is what it is.” Don’t get me wrong there are times when something is indeed “it is what it is” but sometimes it’s just a phrase to say something nice instead of what you are really thinking - do you know what I mean? Anyway, I’ve been struggling with it and praying about it. That’s when that still small voice whispered that we needed to stop accepting defeat and claim the victory that as followers of Christ we know we have.

About the time when I got the message that we shouldn’t just be saying “it is what it is” when we are frustrated, disappointed or even angry – I happened upon the videos of Heather Land – I Ain’t Doin It. Each of Heather’s short videos are hilarious, truthful and end with the statement “I ain’t doin it.” For a while anytime someone said “it is what it is” I would respond with “I ain’t doin it”. But that was only partly overriding the defeating words of the other phrase. Ok – I know I’m rambling – but you know I try to be real with these – so the struggle is real my friends. Then the phrase that really does override the - it stinks and there’s nothing we can do about it, feeling the defeat of “it is what it is” popped into my head. What’s the magic phrase that speaks of victory not defeat? “My God can move mountains.” Yep – He can and he can still the wind and the waves and my weary soul and your weary soul too.

According to the Psalm of Dave that I took the above passage from, He hears us and responds with awesome deeds of righteousness. He is God our Savior, He is hope, He made the mountains and by His strength He can move them or help us to move them. He is the One who puts joyful songs on our mouths, even in the midst of life’s many storms.

Life is still going to be hard – a bad report from the doctor, difficult people in our lives, projects that turnout to be more difficult than we thought – in all of this and so much more, we do not have walk in discouragement. Because our God can move mountains - we can walk in victory not defeat.

A Prayer
Father – Thank you for putting humor in our lives, especially in the midst of storms. Thank you for how You choose to respond to us with mercy, grace, love and strength. Thank you for the victory we have in You. Thank you for moving the mountains that need to be moved or for giving us the strength to climb over it or journey through the valley. Help to remember in those moments when “it is what it is” is on our hearts and expressed in word – that we should follow it with “my God can move mountains” so that we live in victory not defeat. In the name of Jesus, who has made us victorious – Amen.