Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
December 07, 2023: SOAP #5117: Colossians 1-4

SCRIPTURE:  Colossians (NIV) 1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fulness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

OBSERVATION:  These verses and others within the context show that the peace came through the shed blood on the cross, not the time in the grave!  The victory was won on the cross!  Christ entered the grave as The Victor! There are times when many of us would be quite content to escape the trials and troubles and be raptured into heaven.  But God wants us to learn to walk in victory here!  We do not have to wait until we get to heaven to live in victory; we are to enter heaven as victors!

APPLICATION:  Understanding that I am already a victor because of the victory Christ won for me, gives me the courage and strength to walk and talk like a victor now.  Even as I am engaged in the struggle, I fight like a victor.  I keep my head up.  I do not have a defeated attitude.  Praise and thanksgiving are a regular part of my vocabulary.

In me lives the undefeated champion of life!   Whatever I am facing, He has already been there!  He has already faced the toughest temptation that Satan could muster.  He not only faced it, He defeated it!  He refused the temptation of the devil in the wilderness at the beginning of the years of ministry, AND He refused to give in to the physical agony and mental torment of dying the death of a sinner on the cross, separated from God. 

PRAYER:  Lord, it was for me you died.  It was my sins you carried to the cross.  You now live in me as the Victor!   Can you help me?  There is no question.  Yes, you can!  I commit myself to your Lordship.  Holy Spirit, help me not to run ahead or lag behind, but keep in step with The Master.   Amen

Pastor Leon
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