Optimist Challenge Day 4

Special announcement: Since the winner of last week's drawing has not contacted me yet, I have randomly drawn a new winner! The new winner of Renee Swope's book A Confident Heart, and a free writing journal, is karend3, who posted her comment on September 16, 2011 12:55 PM. If this is you, please send me an email with your physical mailing address.

Now for today's challenge:

Choose to live as a victor, not a victim. 

VICTIM:
1. a person who suffers from a destructive or injurious action or agency
2. a person who is deceived or cheated, as by his or her own emotions or ignorance, by the dishonesty of others, or by some impersonal agency
3. a victim of misplaced confidence

There is no denying it, life can be hard. In fact, maybe today, the above definitions seem to define exactly how you are secretly feeling -- suffering because of another person's hurtful words or actions; deceived; cheated; missing your confidence.

But if someone were to describe you to a friend, would you want them to describe you in the above way? I know I wouldn't!

No matter what has happened in our life, we can be a victor.  We can achieve victory over our circumstances, and victory over the lies and negativity that Satan loves to fill our hearts and minds with, IF we choose to be victorious through Christ.

We are always walking towards our destiny - and we have more influence over our destiny than we might think.

I heard a quote last week from a preacher on the radio who was talking about attitude. He said,  "We cannot control if a bird flies over our head. But we can control whether or not we let that bird build a nest in our hair."

What that means is that the devil will constantly try to fill our heads with the wrong kind of thoughts. That is his job as the destroyer, and we cannot control the devil's tactics.

However, we can control whether or not we allow those tactics to infiltrate our minds and build a permanent nest. We can rebuke his ways of thinking, and adopt God's ways instead.

When bad things happen, we often allow negativity and pessimism to take control over our thoughts and actions - in essence, building a nest in our hearts. We may even embrace that negativity, even if inadvertently, and subconsciously convince ourselves that our rudeness, cynicism, anger, and/or lack of consideration or love for others is completely justified.

After all,  when life has dealt us a bowl of lemons, who in their right mind feels like making lemonade?

But making lemonade is exactly what God challenges us to do. He encourages us to take the bad, and turn it into good, by allowing Him to rule in our hearts. Ungodly thoughts, or behaviors, are not justified anywhere in Gods Word, despite how we have been wronged. In fact, as much as we may not like it, God's Word says just the opposite.

The only way to live a victorious Christian life, is to focus on the mercy, grace, love, hope and faith that is available in Jesus.

Mercy lets us know that we are forgiven, and that we have the power to forgive. Grace lets us know that our own slates are wiped clean. Love gives us the motivation to love.  Hope helps us latch onto the promises of God. And faith infuses us with the power to overcome the hardships we encounter, and learn to live as a victor.

When we neglect to acknowledge these heavenly gifts, and instead focus on the all the things dished out to us that we did not want or deserve, life can become meaningless and empty, and eventually, feel void of happiness and optimism altogether.

Christ set an amazing example for us, of maintaining an attitude of love and compassion, despite how He was treated or the circumstances that He found himself in. It is a role model that we can never live up to, but one that we can look to for encouragement of how we want to be.

VICTOR:
1. a person who has overcome or defeated an adversary; conqueror.
2. a winner in any struggle or contest.

Which V-word do you want someone to use when describing you?

Day 4 Challenge Activity:   Choose to live as a victor, not a victim.

Stop right where you are, and pray. Make a choice today to embrace the mindset of a victor, and make a promise to God that if you have been feeling like a victim, you will be seeking His strength to work towards changing your mindset about yourself and your life.

Ask God to help you forgive those who have hurt you. And then ask Him to help you forget their transgressions, so that your heart can be free to be happy. You see, when we spend each day feeling bitter and hurt - like a victim - we are allowing the people who have hurt us to hurt us again and again, every day - and most likely, they have moved on and are enjoying life. So although we can never fully forget, we can let go of what they did to hurt us, and not give them permission to have dominion over our thoughts.

Choose joy today, and rebuke the devil out loud (yes, I said out loud!) - let him know you are serious about your commitment about changing your attitude. Make it clear to him that you will no longer continue to live as a victim, because you have a victorious identity in Jesus Christ.