Hearing God's HeartSample

They overcame him...for they did not love their lives to the death


One of the greatest tests of your motivation is to ask, ‘For whose glory do I live?’ Most of us at some time or other have prayed and sweated to obtain a comfortable life. We want victory over the things that bother us, not the things that ‘bother’ God.

But here is another secret of victory over Satan - that we count our own lives as dispensable so that God may be glorified. This means that we are willing to sacrifice comfort, blessings, peaceful circumstances, everything, so that God’s purposes are advanced. It may seem strange that we are to sacrifice blessing to advance God’s kingdom! Of course the two are not mutually exclusive - we can have both. But all too often we are actually willing to sacrifice God’s eternal purposes so that we might have an easier time of it down here. The sure sign of this is petulance when things do not go our way.

The true overcomer is really willing to endure hardship when the glory of God is at stake. This does not mean throwing your life away as a fanatic, but it does mean being free from self and living for a higher purpose. Satan has no access to the Christian who is free from self.