I've recommitted myself to meditate on Scripture regularly. Today I was meditating on 1 John 4:4 in first person:
The Spirit who lives in me is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
That verse has always spoken powerfully to me, but sometimes verses become so familiar that they lose their significance. I was asking God to help me grasp the practical meaning, and this is what came to me...
Yesterday I blogged about choosing humility and love over pride. The Spirit of humility in me is greater than the spirit of pride who lives in the world. The power is in my choice - will I choose the humble, loving nature I inherited when I accepted Jesus as Lord, or will I choose the prideful nature of the flesh?
"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation [one translation says "he is in a new world"]; the old has gone, the new has come!" -2 Corinthians 5:17
My old nature is characterized by anxiety. The new world that Christ has introduced me to, the heavenly places where I am seated, is characterized by peace.
The Spirit of peace who lives in me is greater than the spirit of anxiety who lives in the world.
The Spirit of unity who lives in me is greater than the spirit of strife who lives in the world.
The Spirit of compassion who lives in me is greater than the spirit of selfishness who lives in the world.
The Spirit of forgiveness who lives in me is greater than the spirit of bitterness who lives in the world.
Substitute your own struggle into the sentence. The ability to overcome pride, anxiety, strife, selfishness, bitterness, etc., is inside you. They are only habits that need to be broken by consistently choosing humility, peace, unity, compassion, forgiveness, instead. When anger or fear or any other powerful force threatens to overcome you, it is comforting to know that there is something greater inside you, and you are the overcomer.
"In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."
-Romans 8:37
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