I’ve dieted most of my life. I’ve had an ongoing battle with weight since junior high. Sometimes I win; sometimes I lose. More often than not, I lose the battle, not the weight. I’ve also battled a great many other things in my life besides weight. Sometimes I won; sometimes I lost.
If it depended solely on my will power, my strength, or my abilities to keep me standing in Christ year in and year out, sometimes I’d win and sometimes I’d lose. More often than not, I’d lose. I can barely control what I eat, let alone my attitudes, the forces of my own will, the enemy of my soul or the world’s attempts to conform me to its patterns.
But it doesn’t depend solely on me. Paul writes, “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” [2 Corinthians 1:21-22]
It is God who knew me in my mother’s womb and knew every day of my life before it happened. It is God who invited me to know Christ. It is God who forgave my sins and made me whole. It is God who translated me out of the realm of darkness and into the kingdom of His dear Son.
Now it is God who makes both you and me “stand firm in Christ.” The New King James says it this way: “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ . . . is God.”
It is God who establishes us, who makes us stand. The Greek word means simply to make firm, to establish, to make secure or stable. We can’t establish ourselves in Christ. We can’t make ourselves secure, or firm, or stable. My goodness, I can’t even establish myself on a diet! What makes me think I’m strong enough to establish myself in God.
“Now it is God” who makes us secure in Christ by His promises, by His strength, and for His glory. When the world or the devil or even our own flesh seeks to undermine that stability, it is God’s promises that He has overcome the world, that He has defeated the devil, and that He has made a way for us out of all temptation that keep us going! Hallelujah! Amen.
