Death has been swallowed up in victory

Originally posted August 30th, 2005.

When the persihable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." - Paul in a letter to the Corinthian church.

Meaning for me: the day when we have stopped living for the moment, stopped living for a world that is dying off every day, will be the day of complete victory. It will be the day when death no longer rules over life. The day when all eyes are fixed on eternity will be the day when death begins to be forgotten.

Stop soothing yourself with material goods, physical pleasure, relationships, and the ecstasy of hatred! Start living in the security of faith - living the life God created you for. Not religion, not moral systems, just love and trust. Loving those around you and trusting that God, not you and your broken way of thinking, knows what is best for you. Be aware of God! Live like he is watching!

I'm powerless.
I'm broken.
I don't know how to live right.
I have been sucked under.
My soul is drowning and I am close to death. I have lost hope. I can't do what I want to do. I'm flooded with guilt. I teethe with self-hatred. I've lost touch with who I am.

I give up my way of living.
Even if it kills me.
I give up!
I surrender my life.

God restores! I no longer have to fight for breath. He fills my lungs with air. I no longer have to beg for mercy. He has imparted upon me perfection.

I let God direct my life and he gives life to me.
I give him a shattered and wasted body.
He gives back beauty.
I give him a confused and disoriented mind.
He gives back clarity.

If you admit that you have lost control of your life - that every attempt you make to be liked, to be good, to be happy, to be filled has come back shallow and temporary, then you are faced with the ultimate choice: keep living the way you were in constant fluctuation OR try something new. What is this new thing, this new way of living? Forget all that you have learned in the church. Forget all morality. Forget everything. Simply admit you need help from above. This help is not a different life - you still have yours. It is simply a guidebook to the life you have been living. Live your life as God directs. Learn God's word and put it in action. Live as if God was watching because he is!

Finally, keep doing it! Don't stop admitting that the way you were living left you filled with anger, perverted, destroying yourself, and filled with self-deception in a place that has hardly even a shadow of true reality. Stop the habit of self-medicating with your sexuality, your anger, your inflated self ego, your greed because that is at best only a temporary fix (and at worst eternal destruction). You need to try it a different way.