|
About Jesus Steve Sweetman Magnificent
Defeat One
of the main story lines found in the Bible, which is also the story of
human history, is the conflict between humanity and Deity.
Wes King sings about this conflict in his 1990's CD, "A Room
Full Of Stories". The song is entitled "Magnificent
Defeat". Normally you
wouldn't think of a defeat as being magnificent unless you're the one
doing the defeating. In this
case Wes King was not the victor, but the one defeated.
He views his defeat as being magnificent.
Wes'
song portrays his life-long wrestling match between self and Jesus.
Rest from this struggle could not be found until Jesus broke his
will. He expresses this by
singing, "here I lie broken at your feet, rejoicing, rejoicing, at
this magnificent defeat." What
a place to find oneself, broken and defeated at the feet of Jesus. The
fight is over. The human
will surrenders in defeat. A
magnificent defeat it is, but is the battle really over?
Not really. The
struggle goes on after your initial surrender.
Every morning "self" rises to prominence and challenges
this surrender. You might
say that "selfishness is the mother of all sins."
Self, with the influence of satan, is the reason why every battle
in human history has been fought. We
have so often preached, "come to Jesus and live happily
ever-after", but before the "ever-after" actually gets
here, there's a battle to be fought within us.
Many of us Christians don't experience this battle.
Is it because we've reached
a place of total surrender to Jesus and so there's no fight to be
fought? I don't think
so. I think we're just not
close enough to Jesus to experience the conflict.
Our troops in
If
you pursue a relationship with Jesus, you'll soon find out that His will
conflicts with yours. At
this point the battle between self and Jesus occurs.
If Jesus is victorious, the defeat is magnificent, and the battle
moves on to the next point of conflict.
It's a daily struggle, and hopefully a daily victory.
Steven
Curtis Chapman's song entitled "Hold On To Jesus" from his
"Signs Of Life" CD is also about this struggle. Chapman
sings, "I will hold on to the hand of my Saviour, and I will hold
on with all my might. I will hold loosely to things that are fleeting,
and hold on to Jesus for life."
I always picture Chapman squeezing the hand of Jesus as tightly
as he can as he fights the battle. We
should do the same. As we
draw closer to Jesus we will find ourselves in a measure of conflict
with Him. Hopefully we'll
also experience this magnificent defeat and the overwhelming peace that
comes from our daily surrender.
|