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"I believe the story of Adam and Eve is the beginning of a time when victim thinking took hold and our souls have been trying to protect us from being victimized ever since."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 108.
The story of Adam and Eve is such a profound and compelling story on many fronts. Whether it be from the standpoint of paradise lost, or the craftiness of our enemy, the lessons that can be learned from Adam and Eve are still a major part of what this life is all about. Such is the case with the lessons surrounding victim thinking that the story of Adam and Eve are presenting to us even today.
Eve might be considered the first person to make a life changing decision based on victim thinking principals. You see the devil was able to tempt Eve by appealing to the feeling that God must be withholding something good (the forbidden fruit). Adam quickly became the second person to make a life changing decision based on victim thinking principals when he took the fruit from Eve and ate it. Both were acting just like you and I do when we allow our feelings, our motives and our actions to be filtered through the limited view victim thinking offers up in our lives.
Eve felt something missing in her life that would make it possible to doubt God's goodness. Adam was acting out of fear of losing something from God or from Eve in a way that allowed him to turn temptation into action. Temptation turned to action is something we call sin. We are stuck in a world where sin abounds because of the victim thinking tendencies in Adam and Eve that controlled their response to the evil that confronted them. Sadly, we too have just as much of a tendency to let our temptations turn into action as we let victim thinking control the way we feel, think and act.
For that reason, I believe God is desperate for us to know what victors we are. That's why He is so serious about not letting our actions be what makes it possible for us to gain long term approval from the world when it comes to identity. When we tie our actions to our identity we are just as doomed to victim thinking results as Adam and Eve were in the garden.
God wants us to have faith. Faith in what? Faith in what He says about us. He has gone to great lengths and has made mighty sacrifices to prove who we are. His son paid a price we will never be able to repay to make it possible for us to be called God's Children. That and that alone is what we need to believe in order to be the victors we have been called to be.
Looking to anything we can do or anything we can gain from this world as proof of who we are is just like looking at that apple in the garden and wanting a bite. Sure we are going to be tempted to let our actions be enough to prove who we are at times, but staying in that place is turning temptation into action as far as God is concerned. It is actually a sin to not believe what God says about your identity and to turn to worldly things to try and prove who you are. We know from Adam and Eve's plight that taking that kind of action isn't such a good idea personally and for all those who will come after us.
When it comes to victim thinking we all have a choice. We can believe in what God says about us and let victor living take hold or we can turn to the world and let victim thinking be in control. Today's Bible reading also presents a choice. Take a look at it with me now.
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:22 (NIV)
Pretty simple choice - live or die! I believe this is the same with the victim to victor discussion. Living in that place of victim thinking is akin to death. Worse than that it is a slow death started and maintained by none other than ourselves. This death isn't a punishment from God. It isn't a motivational carrot and stick thing from Him either. The death we face from allowing victim thinking to take over in our lives is a self imposed, self regulated and self centered event.
Notice the word self used in that last sentence? Self is the key. It is when we are trying to find our self from this world that we die a slow and agonizing death in our souls. God has such a different plan for us through Jesus Christ.
Our verse today says we will be MADE alive in Christ. Such an amazing use of words. It doesn't say we will become alive - like a light switch going on. It says we will be MADE alive as though it is a process. That's exactly what this walk with God is - it is a process, a journey that is taking us from the jaws of destruction to the freedom of life. Believing what God says about us and letting that overtake all of our lives is how the process of being MADE alive is happening in all our lives through Christ.
You and I will have plenty of opportunities to turn temptation in to action. Good news is, any of the sin that results from our actions has already been forgiven by Jesus Christ's death on the cross. This doesn't give us a license to sin, but it sure does speak to the freedom we all have in who we are. Because of Jesus we are God's children and that makes us all the victor we will ever need in our lives. Don't let your actions be what brings death into your life. Kill victim thinking today by believing you are all God says you are. That's where the freedom of life God paid such a high prices for you to have resides.
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