Winning Big

Romans 8:37
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

This morning was like any other. Wake up, make coffee, rouse the kids for school, get a cup of coffee, rouse the kids again, refill mug, read some in the Word, more coffee, yell from my desk for the kids to hurry, check ESPN.com for the latest news (that isn’t nearly as important as actual news but is far more interesting), start writing. Some of the headlines at ESPN’s site caught my attention, though, and got me thinking about this powerful verse. On the sidebar of the home page were the links for 2 stories about last night’s college hoops action…

“No. 1 KU avoids Memphis’ upset bid” and “No. 2 Spartans escape Gonzaga’s upset bid” were screaming at me about the faith. I quickly turned to this verse in Romans to see why these headlines had such a dramatic effect on me, and there it was. Right there in the study notes at the bottom of the page was the Greek word for that phrase “we are more than conquerors.” Hupernikomen is only used this once time in all of the New Testament, and it literally means that we are “over and above victors” or “super victors.” Our faith is not designed to be like the Kansas Jayhawks or the Michigan State Spartans. We are not supposed to barely escape this world with victory, or hang on to win because the devil misses a last second shot at the buzzer to beat us! Nope, we are to pass through this life much more like the 11th ranked Tennessee Volunteers who pummeled UNC-Asheville last night 124-49. We are not those who get in to the kingdom by the hair of our chinney-chin-chins!!

In fairness, of course, we have to admit that our lives don’t always fit this description. You may find yourself looking in the mirror and saying, “Me? A super victor? I can’t even be a supper victor!” It’s so easy to lessen the weight of Scripture’s truth by making it match our experience, but the beauty of faith is that we stand on the truth of Scripture first, and believe it while life catches up. You and I are more than conquerors because our Savior didn’t barely defeat our enemy. He annihilated him at the cross and now lives in us! Through Him we overwhelmingly conquer!

Believe it or not, the world understands this. In fact, a small shoe company called Nike takes it’s name from this Greek word. When they launched the “Just Do It” campaign, they didn’t preface it with “if you feel like it” or “if you’re already a runner.” They just said to make your body do it. Lace ’em up and head out and watch the results. They knew that more times than not we don’t feel like doing a lot of good things, and in those times, the super victors “just do it.”

So go get your last cup of coffee and head out, you overwhelming conqueror! You’ve got super victories waiting for you today!

And possibly, a pair of Nikes.

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