Confidence

After you achieve something or accomplish something, do you feel stronger?  Do you feel more competent?  Do you feel more ready and able to take on the next challenge?  I would bet you do.  Most of us feed off of success, or if not success, at least the knowledge that you can be successful.

In World War II, war raged on in the British and French colonies of North Africa, as the Nazi War Machine was attempting to conquer the oil fields of the African continent.  The British fought bravely but with no success against the brutality of the Germany Army.  That was until the Battle of El Alamein.  In this famous battle the British finally got a much needed victory against Hitler's forces.  Following the battle British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave one his most famous (and one of my favorite) quotes:  "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."   What a great day this was for the allies; and from this battle the British pushed forward against the Germans and eventually recaptured all of North Africa.  After the war, Churchill wrote: "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein, we never had a defeat."  Isn't it amazing what you can do when you know you can win. 

If you're anything like me (and for your sake I hope you're not) you probably have fought many battles with temptation.  It is quite possible that you have lost these battles time and again.  Be reminded and be encouraged that you can have success against sin.  1 Corinthians 10:13 says "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful;  he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."  Temptation can be overcome.  Sin can be defeated.  Colossians 2:13-15  ^"When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.  And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."  

God, through the Holy Spirit, provides us a way out of temptation.  Christ defeated sin;  we are no longer slaves.  Find confidence in knowing that you, through the power of the Holy Spirit, can resist temptation and defeat the sin that plagues you.  And one day you will look back and say "Praise be to God".