And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives unto death. Rev. 12:11.
No aspect of human experience arouses our energies faster than the prospect of immediate death. The drowning man struggles desperately to keep his head above water. A woman who falls off a cliff frantically clings to the branch of a bush growing out of the rock near the top. The dying patient searches the Internet for some hope of a cure. Impending death sets the full powers of our being into action. Yet our best efforts are not good enough. While we can sometimes postpone death, the ultimate sentence will be cancelled only in earth's final generation. Our only hope until then is to trust completely in God's power to save us even beyond death.
This text, therefore, implies that those who overcome do so on the basis of complete trust in God. They place their lives in His hands, do whatever He says, and rely on His power to accomplish those things that seen impossible in their own strength. A modern-day example of overcoming occurred in the beginnings of the 12-step movement during the 1930s.
Bill Wilson was a stockbroker who lived in Brooklyn, New York, and had a serious problem with alcohol. On a business trip to Akron, Ohio (May 1935), he found himself outside a bar, tempted and desperate. In the past he had fought the urge by talking to other alcoholics, who truly understood his struggle. That day he left the vicinity of the bar and began looking for a church. Through a local church group he found surgeon Robert Hollbrook Smith.
Dr. Bob and Bill W., as Alcoholics Anonymous members know them, promised to keep each other sober. Bill developed a strategy: a simple set of principles later refined into 12 steps. Alcoholics, Bill said, must admit they are powerless against their addiction. Next they must fearlessly inventory the defects and weaknesses in their character. They must make amends to everyone they have harmed. And above all else, they must submit to God, however they understand Him, to provide the power that they do not have on their own.
The advice did not take immediately. Dr. Bob went to Atlantic City, New Jersey, for a convention. Several days later he showed up at the Akron train station, totally soused. On June 10, 1935, the dried-out but still jittery doctor was due in surgery. That morning Bill W. gave Dr. Bob a bottle of beer to steady his scalpel hand during surgery. The beer was Dr. Bob last. The two men pledged that day to bring Bill W.'s principles to other alcoholics, one day at a time.
Lord, I admit that I am powerless in the face of (alcohol, food, sex, drugs, anger, overwork, laziness, whatever). I place my life under Your control today. I need the power only You can give.
No aspect of human experience arouses our energies faster than the prospect of immediate death. The drowning man struggles desperately to keep his head above water. A woman who falls off a cliff frantically clings to the branch of a bush growing out of the rock near the top. The dying patient searches the Internet for some hope of a cure. Impending death sets the full powers of our being into action. Yet our best efforts are not good enough. While we can sometimes postpone death, the ultimate sentence will be cancelled only in earth's final generation. Our only hope until then is to trust completely in God's power to save us even beyond death.
This text, therefore, implies that those who overcome do so on the basis of complete trust in God. They place their lives in His hands, do whatever He says, and rely on His power to accomplish those things that seen impossible in their own strength. A modern-day example of overcoming occurred in the beginnings of the 12-step movement during the 1930s.
Bill Wilson was a stockbroker who lived in Brooklyn, New York, and had a serious problem with alcohol. On a business trip to Akron, Ohio (May 1935), he found himself outside a bar, tempted and desperate. In the past he had fought the urge by talking to other alcoholics, who truly understood his struggle. That day he left the vicinity of the bar and began looking for a church. Through a local church group he found surgeon Robert Hollbrook Smith.
Dr. Bob and Bill W., as Alcoholics Anonymous members know them, promised to keep each other sober. Bill developed a strategy: a simple set of principles later refined into 12 steps. Alcoholics, Bill said, must admit they are powerless against their addiction. Next they must fearlessly inventory the defects and weaknesses in their character. They must make amends to everyone they have harmed. And above all else, they must submit to God, however they understand Him, to provide the power that they do not have on their own.
The advice did not take immediately. Dr. Bob went to Atlantic City, New Jersey, for a convention. Several days later he showed up at the Akron train station, totally soused. On June 10, 1935, the dried-out but still jittery doctor was due in surgery. That morning Bill W. gave Dr. Bob a bottle of beer to steady his scalpel hand during surgery. The beer was Dr. Bob last. The two men pledged that day to bring Bill W.'s principles to other alcoholics, one day at a time.
Lord, I admit that I am powerless in the face of (alcohol, food, sex, drugs, anger, overwork, laziness, whatever). I place my life under Your control today. I need the power only You can give.
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