Victim or Victor

Are you feeling bound, helpless, hopeless, insignificant, trapped, disregarded, undervalued, or like someone's scapegoat? As if there's always someone or something requiring more of you than you have to give and it seems to count for nothing and never offers a reward?   

There are days when following Jesus just feels too difficult. Where it seems like God is asking too much; "I have to die again? Lay on the altar and give up my will!" Do you know the word "victim" comes from the Latin word Victima, which means "animal offered in sacrifice to the gods"? In tough seasons, that's what it feels like. As if I'm God's victim. Then I remember His nature... He is my provider, my defender, my refuge. My strength comes from His joy. He's my advocate, my fortress and my rock. I stand because I stand on Him. He's my comforter, my hope.

In the time of Abraham, child sacrifice to the gods was "normal" practice, so being asked to take Issac and bind him to an altar wouldn't have been that much of a strange request. Yet God provided a sacrificial lamb in his place. He doesn't require the blood of his sons and daughters to appease him. 

But what about Jesus? Surely, he became a victim on the cross, his blood appeasing either the anger of God or bound as a sacrifice to the gods of religion and politics. And at first glance, that would be true. Except Jesus wasn't just a man, he was also God. He was there of his own free will. He wasn't there as one who was helpless and hopeless but as one who saw the joy set before him, the victory, and decided the sacrifice was worth it. 

And I wonder. How many times have I seen myself as a victim when the Father sees me as a victor? I hear the Lord calling his children to come closer and let Him remove the binding and blinding circumstances, fatigue, unforgiveness, and defeat that bind them to the hopeless altars of pity. It's time to see the joy that outweighs the sacrifice. The victory—not only seeing it in the future but experiencing the victories in the land of the living. 

It's time to chase after the enemies of the Lord—sickness, oppression, torment—and see them defeated and crushed. It's time to get off the altar of the enemy and remove the grave clothes—there's a victors' crown awaiting.

Psalm 18

Hebrews 12:1-2 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. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.