Conqueror or Victim

Romans 8:37 KJV Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
The victim mentality is a powerful tool satan uses to try and make us forget our true identity in Christ. Many psychologists agree that the victim mentality is a learned mental state but if it’s learned that means it can be unlearned. 
God is not blind to our problems nor is He numb to the emotions that accompany those problems.Just like Jesus asked the crippled man if he wanted to be healed, we too must decide whether or not we really want the help God provides and be mature enough to accept the responsibility and the accountability that comes with it. 

Transcript

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Hey guys, thanks for tuning in to Unfiltered with Jesse B. I'm sending a warm welcome to listeners in Tokyo, Japan, who are the latest who join the Unfiltered Podcast listening family. As always, if anyone out there finds this content to be beneficial, and if you know of someone else who might as well, go ahead and share an episode or two with them. And as always, don't forget to subscribe on your preferred podcast platform. The past three or four episodes, I've been dealing with focusing on change, not our circumstances, but change within ourselves. So more often than not, we pray for God to change a situation, to change someone, without taking into account that there may be things in our lives that God needs to change as well. And those prayers might sound something like, Lord, I'm praying for a better marriage, or I'm praying for help with the financial situation, or the doctor says this, but I know that you are the great physician, and what do you say? Show me anything I need to change on my part in these situations, as opposed to, Lord, here's my problem. This is what I'm praying for. Please fix it. Amen. And then we get met with crickets, the delays, and it seems like God isn't answering our prayers. Come testimony time at church, we get jealous of those who are getting their prayers answered, and then we get mad, we feel sorry for ourselves, and on and on, you know how it goes. But what if God is waiting on you to submit and to be open to things that He may want to change in you as well? Now, when I was younger, or who am I kidding, even just a few months ago, I hated hearing you have a choice. Even after tearfully spilling my guts to some friends and I was met with you have a choice. Now, just going to be blunt here, it pissed me off because it seemed like they didn't even hear what I was saying for the past hour, or if they did, the advice that I was given and being sent out into the world with was you have a choice. But the truth of the matter is I do have a choice. And if I have a choice, that means you have a choice. Romans eight thirty seven says, Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. The apostle Paul wrote this as an encouragement to all believers, listing hardships such as distress, persecution, tribulation, or trouble, no matter what it is, cannot separate us from God's love. More than a conqueror means the enemy is not just defeated. More than a conqueror means that adversity has turned into an ultimate gain or an ultimate triumph. However, it is not our own strength that has made us more than conquerors, it is the unfailing love of Christ. So what does that mean for us? It means we cannot lose because we are not victims. In legal terms, a victim is defined by someone who suffers a direct threat, be it physical, psychological, or financial, a harm as the result of a crime or a delinquent act. Merriam Webster defines victim as a person or a thing injured, destroyed, or adversely affected by an unpleasant event or circumstance or illness. However, the historical and religious meanings differ somewhat. Again, according to Merriam Webster, in the context of historical or religion, originally a victim was referred to a living creature sacrificed in a religious right to a deity. Now staying with that context, could it be that when we choose to remain a victim that we are in fact sacrificing ourselves to an unholy religious right or an unholy deity? Something to think about. Typically in the modern age, when we think of victim, we think of situations resulting from somebody else's intent or circumstance implying that we had no choice in the matter. Whatever happened, happened. Or the phrase that I have come to despise the most, it is what it is. While it is true that we cannot always control what happens to us, we can't control the weather, we can't control how someone else drives, we can't even control what someone is going to say to us or about us. However, we can control how we react in those situations, whether we choose to handle it ourselves or seek God's wisdom or seek his provision, and it's not unheard of to seek his protection in the matter. We can either choose to become better or bitter. Now many psychologists agree that the victim mentality is a learned psychological state, and I would have to agree with that. Just start asking people how they are doing and see what kind of answers you get. There was an individual who used to call the office on a daily basis over some litigation matters. Each time this person would bring up somebody dying or somebody dead, and be it yesterday, ten years ago, it didn't matter. And the bizarre thing was the deceased individuals, assuming for the sake of argument that these statements were true, they weren't even connected to this person, not even in the slightest yet. This person was so traumatized and couldn't make their court hearings. They were so traumatized that they couldn't help but get into arguments and start fights with their neighbors. They couldn't pay rent, couldn't work, couldn't pay mechanics for auto repairs, and they couldn't help from assaulting an officer, and on and on and on it goes, and that is no exaggeration, folks. People who experience severe trauma or repeated helpless situations can develop a mindset where they feel chronically powerless. They continue to blame outside forces for their circumstances and believe that they have no control over their lives, therefore no control over the words they speak, no control over the emotions, no control over their actions. In addition, they also get addicted to the attention and being treated with kid gloves and alleviation of responsibilities. Playing the victim is also known as the martyr complex or self-victimization. This is a behavioral pattern where an individual may exaggerate, fabricate, or dwell on perceived victimhood to manipulate others, gain sympathy, or avoid personal responsibility. As we see, this is all contrary to biblical scripture. Psalms eleven five in the ESV states that the Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. Psalm eighteen two in the King James says that the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust, my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high tower. Second Thessalonians three three says, But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. Now there are many other scriptures talking about how the Lord defends us and how he is an ever present help in times of trouble. So this proves that God is not blind to the problems that we endure, nor is he numb to the emotions that accompany our problems, and they are not to be invalidated. However, Scripture does not encourage adopting the victim mentality. Instead, the Bible emphasizes healing, accepting personal responsibility by testing our own actions, as stated in Galatians six, verses four through five, and overcoming through faith in the Lord's strength. In no way does the Bible advocate allowing hardships to define our lives. Refer to the account in John five when Jesus asked a man that had been crippled for years if he wanted to be healed. Now upon first glance you might be tempted to think that this is a strange question for Jesus to ask, and some have said it sounded like Jesus demonstrated a lack of compassion. But that was not the case. Jesus wanted this man to know that he will be subject to accountability for that healing. In other words, this man would no longer be a victim and was expected to live and function in full, shedding the victim mentality and moving forward as a living testimony. The same applies to us for whatever we may be praying for, be it physical, emotional, marital, financial, provisional, relational, whatever the case, as Christians, we should not be victims. Jesus meets us where we are, so in him we are more than conquerors. Thanks for listening. Love you guys. Good night.