Day 99 – Pendulums

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file.

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“The world wants to drag you down to a point where being set apart doesn’t mean a thing in your life. You have the power to stop this.”

As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 56.

Sometimes I feel like society is at the whim of a giant pendulum swinging wildly from side to side. As a really inconsequential example consider the issue of coffee. One day it will be widely reported about some study announcing that it is sure death for those of us who partake in a cup of coffee from time to time. It isn’t too long until it is widely reported some finding that coffee is the new miracle drug.

Society has gotten use to special things becoming mundane and the mundane being magically transformed to something special. Sometimes it is hard to figure out what it means to be set apart when significant parts of our lives are written off in one way or another by the swinging pendulum of societal changes we face in this world. Want to know something really scary – that’s what the darkness behind this world wants. Nothing is more effective for the darkness around us than when we forget who we are. We have an identity that has been set apart for a plan that will rid this world of darkness once and for all.

Just like my silly coffee example, society wants us to be confused to the point of just giving up when it comes to our being set apart The pendulum is just as likely to swing wildly from one end of the holiness spectrum as religious and non-religious leaders alike espouse their best teachings on what holiness is to be in our lives. As we are bombarded with polar opposite views from respected leaders it is so easy to just abandon the subject of what being set apart means. That’s just what the darkness in this world wants us to do.

Part of the problem is the fact that we have gotten way to use to letting our identities be defined by this world and the things we do in this world. By doing this, it is easy to see why conflicting views on being set apart can make us get to the point where we have no idea as to what being set apart means for our own lives.

God is pretty clear on the subject. Check out what He says in today’s Bible reading.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9 (NIV)

A chosen people a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession… Each and every one of these descriptions have been co-opted in a way by the wildly swinging pendulum of change in society that even these amazing descriptions can have less of an impact in our lives than they should. It is so easy to doubt these pronouncements over us because we have been convinced to seek worldly proof that these descriptions have any relevance in our lives. Forgive me for saying this, yet again, but if you let anything in this world be part of the defining process of who you are, victim thinking is absolutely the result.

It isn’t that these descriptions need to be tested by the world – they don’t! They come as a package deal with the fact that you are God’s Child. It isn’t that you are a really good priest that makes you a victor. Nor does the fact you are chosen by God make you a victor. It is that your identity as God’s Child makes you a victor and that sets you apart in this world.

Listen to what God thinks of you again. You are a chosen person. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation. You are God’s special possession. Maybe you need to hear these descriptions over and over again as you go about your day so that you don’t lose track of the fact that you have been set apart. It isn’t that God is waiting for you to get your life together so that He can set you apart. You have been set apart – now start living that way.