Defeating the World

One of my favorite verses is 1 John 5:4. I memorized it a few years ago during a spiritually shaky time in my life. I wanted so badly to be more like Jesus, and consistently walk with Him, not just on Sunday. I always felt I was falling short. I would try to start each day as a new one with a clean slate, determined to do better. Sometimes before the day had barely gotten started, I would run smack dab into the enemy staring right at me with a temptation. Before I knew it, I had already swallowed the fruit. It NEVER tasted good.


 remember rationalizing bad attitudes and temptations with things like, “I’ll say this and won’t ever say anything else, that will be ok”. WRONG. Or here’s another sly one he would use - “just sit and listen, but don’t say anything”. That one didn’t work either. Soon I became convicted that even if I wasn’t “saying” anything, my association with someone who was did not reflect well to others or to the person speaking. Those who associated me with the one speaking assumed I was of the same opinion just because of my entertaining them and the one speaking interpreted my listening as 100% agreement, which wasn’t true either. I was exhausted with trying and felt like a failure at the end of every day. When I would walk out to my car from work, I would ask God, “did anything I said or did today reflect you in any way?”. I regretfully tell you, many times I felt like the answer was not a good one. I would go home for the evening, spend time in study and prayer before bed and begin the next day with good intentions, determined to do better.

It was a vicious cycle.

Praise God, it was broken!

I cried out to Him over and over and He impressed upon me to arm myself with the weapon of His word to fight the temptations. That’s when I learned 1 John 5:4 and it has stayed with me since. The New Living Translation says it this way:

“Every child of God defeats this evil world by trusting Christ to give the victory.”

I read it and pondered on it. EVERY child of God DEFEATS this evil world - those are the words that reeled me in. I wanted to defeat this so badly. I thought to myself – this could be the answer! How do I DEFEAT this world? I couldn’t read on fast enough for the “how to” and then I soaked up the rest of the verse ---- by trusting Christ to give the victory. Those words were like honey to my soul. I knew I was a child of God, therefore, I KNEW this verse applied to me.

The victory over sin was already achieved on the Cross, and He proved it on Resurrection Day, so the victory over my sin had already been won. I had to trust Christ for it and stop trying to do it myself. Every time I tried to accomplish victory on my own, it was like saying what He did on the cross was not enough. Even if I had been victorious, even once, I wouldn’t have done as good a job at it as He did! It wouldn’t have been lasting. I can’t tell you how many times I played that verse back in my mind, and sometimes even recited it out loud when I was faced with something. I began trusting Christ for the victory that was already mine, and my life began to change. When the enemy would knock on my door, I would tell him “Oh no you don’t! Christ already won this battle, so I don’t have to fight it. I am a child of God and all I have to do is trust in the victory Jesus already gave me!” I can sit here and type to you with 100% honesty, he would flee every time. He doesn’t like to be reminded that Jesus made me and you a victor!

What temptations and struggles does he keep dangling in front of you? First of all fight him with the only offensive weapon you have, the Everlasting Word of God. Secondly, trust Christ that His victory was enough and you don’t have to fight the fight.

Amy Dotson, RPDOTK (Royal Princess Daughter Of The King)