Daily Manna · Day 326 · November 22
Victory Through Faith
“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”
The apostle John wrote this letter as an old man, near the end of the first century. Early tradition places him in Ephesus, writing to churches that were being pulled apart by teachers who offered a more impressive account of Jesus than his. By then he was one of the last people alive who had actually walked with Jesus.
You can hear that in the way he writes. He opens the letter by pointing to his own eyes and hands: "which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled." Again and again he calls his readers "little children." That could sound sentimental, but it is exactly how a man speaks when he has outlived everyone his age. Jerome passed on a story about John's last days. He was so weak that he had to be carried into church, and all he would say was, "Little children, love one another." When people asked why he always said the same thing, he answered that it was the Lord's command, and if this alone were done, it would be enough. We cannot be sure the story is exact, but it fits the man we meet in these letters.
That is the man who wrote today's line about victory, and it matters, because he was not someone on a winning streak. Look at how he puts it: "whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world." He points to the new birth that God gives, and says nothing about how strong the person is. Then he says, "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." In the Greek, he speaks of the victory as already won. In case anyone thinks faith just means feeling confident, he tells us at once what it trusts: "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" So the strength of the victory lies in the One your faith is holding on to.
Think of the one situation you have been trying to push through by your own strength, and change the way you hold it. Put into words what you believe about God right at that point. Then act like someone who believes it: answer the message, show up, and keep the promise you made. You are not fighting your way toward a victory. You are standing inside one that Jesus has already won.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 326 is Running With Footmen (Jeremiah 12:5).