How we win

A quick thought from the psalms of today's Office of Readings:

For it was not in my bow that I trusted,
nor yet was I saved by my sword:
it was you who saved us from our foes.  Ps 44: 6-7a

As I struggle over and over against the same kinds of sin and weakness, the only thing that ever helps me is to quit grappling with it in my mind, to just give it over to God and be done with it. When that thought arises again, when I peacefully remind myself that I have given this to him and thank him and set it aside, I am saved from that enemy that would otherwise remove me from God's presence. Then:

All day long our boast was in god
and we praised your name without ceasing. Ps 44: 8

And yet we must at some point choose for ourselves to walk in the victory that God has won for us. Otherwise we will find ourselves wondering why we have no strength or victory over this area of our lives. It may seem as if God has abandoned us. (vs 10-23)  We may find ourselves pleading in our misery. (vs 24-27)

The psalms are wonderful, and Jesus prayed them daily. But they are fulfilled in him. Even when we stumble again and again, he was won the final victory for us, and the more closely we walk with him the more we will see that victory manifest in our lives along the way.

(Okay, maybe not so quick after all: the further into that Psalm I prayed, the more I thought, "Oh, that isn't all!")