For many people, life can be harsh and bitter. We begin with hopes and dreams of being a conqueror, but it seems life has taken us captive. We long to thrive, but somehow we just hope to survive, and we begin to drift aimlessly.

The Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 8:37 that we are “more than conquerors.” In our society, where wickedness is prevailing and righteousness is ridiculed, how can we possibly be more than conquerors?  We live in a world in which we have so little control so how is it that all things can possibly work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose” as it says in Romans 8:28?

Jars of Clay

We need to remember that our power for conquering is in Christ and not in us. The Bible says we are like earthen vessels. Our lives are pictured as the kind of clay jars used in Paul’s time. They were fragile and easily broken. Valuables such as money, jewelry, or important documents were stored safely by sealing them up inside and the owner would break the jar open to redeem the contents.

God is teaching us that His power, glory, and magnificence are displayed through us. We are his earthen vessels – fragile, brittle, and easily broken, but we have the power of the living God within us. But before God’s power can be released in our lives, our vessel must be broken.

God is teaching us that His power, glory, and magnificence are displayed through us.

His Grace is Sufficient

Paul understood this well. In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, he was afflicted by a thorn in the flesh. We don’t know what it was, but it was a very debilitating and painful physical affliction. Three times he begged and pleaded for God to take it away from Him, but three times God’s answer was the same – “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

This brought Paul to a glorious revelation in Philippians 3. He finally understood that to realize God’s power, he had to suffer “the loss of all things” so that he would know Christ “and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.”

Paul learned it’s through the pain and suffering that resurrection power is unleashed in our life. When God allows pain in our lives, it’s because He loves us and He wants us to know Him and the power of His Holy Spirit within us.

Fully Surrendered

You won’t experience the supernatural power for living if you haven’t fully surrendered your life to God. When you attempt to be the captain of your own ship and go through life without God, the pressures of life will begin to break you  But if you’re been born of God’s Spirit and bought by Christ’s blood, you don’t belong to you, you belong to God.

God is trying to take the trials of life and teach us supernatural patience and perseverance.

Only when you allow God to be in control of your life can He teach you the real priorities and help you focus on the eternal and not the temporal. When you’re in a situation that causes you to fight for your life, money and material possessions won’t mean a thing. Hebrews 12:1-2 reminds us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us…and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

God is trying to take the trials of life and teach us supernatural patience and perseverance. James 1:2 says to “count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” God wants you to live a complete and contented life but it begins with patience.

Our Hope

When life gets difficult, you can still have hope in the promises of God. Faith is standing on the promises of God and believing God will do what He has said He will do. When you’re clinging to your faith and things still don’t seem to be getting better, God promises in Romans 8:18 that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

As the old hymn says, “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.” God never intended for you to stay here long.

James describes the length of our life as a “vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” As believers, we have the hope of heaven and one day, the One who conquered death will return for His bride, and we will spend eternity in the presence of the Lord.

What a glorious day that will be!