Old Merriam-Webster defines a conqueror as “one who wins a country in war, subdues or subjugates a people or overcomes an adversary. We find this word synonymous with beater, master, subduer, vanquisher, victor and winner. Met on the battlefield, this word fits, but in the day-to-day trenches where our weapons resemble prayers and our opponents operate in the spiritual realm, what does it mean to be a conqueror? Correction. What does it mean to be more than a conqueror?
Romans 8:35–39 (ESV): Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
True conquerors are not self-made. We who choose to follow Christ know the hardships as well as the hopeful advancements it takes having Him in our lives. We don’t approach the Son with rose-colored glasses expecting all things pretty and perfect to magically drop in our laps. We know when trouble comes a-knocking and a good-day-turns-disaster comes a-creeping, it will not impact the core of Jesus’ reason for being and His resolve for covering us in His great love.
We linger in the shadow of that love. We hide in the core of His resolve. Jesus’ love causes us to be more than a conqueror in times of trouble. When the world revolves around the belief that they are the captain of their own destiny, the master of their universe and the ruler of their fate, it take nothing but a series of events to fling these notions to the wind. Life without Christ is not a conquered one, but an enslaved one. Yes, Philippians 4:13 states, “I can do all things,” but it is only through Christ alone who gives us strength will we find victory, direction and purpose in all those things we need strength to do.
Do you remember your days of younger glory? We all set out to conquer the world. I defied my dysfunctional upbringing and vowed to take on the corporate arena without a clear plan in play. I did alright for myself for a while, but I always seemed to feel something missing from my life. My more-than conqueror mindset was mediocre at best, because I simply reacted to every obstacle in my own strength and not in God’s abiding love.
Can anyone track with that? It gets tiring, right? When I came against famine, hunger pangs persisted. When persecution struck, I withered like a parched plant. I thought I knew it all, but I knew nothing.
“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26).
When I realized my strength could not cover anything, His love covered everything. Talk about freedom! When faced with physical obstructions trying to block us, we have God’s love covering it all. Persecution? Covered. Famine? Covered. Tribulation? Covered. Danger or sword? God had that covered too. In fact, those obstructions “will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 1:19). In other words, God covers it all.
Yes, there will be factions who will try and come against such resolve. God’s word casts a wide assortment of suspects in the annihilation of our love confidence: death or life; angels or rulers; things present or things to come; powers, height, depth, or anything else in all creation. To a self-made conqueror, that’s an unfair, lopsided battlefield, don’t you think? But we remain more than a conqueror with the real victor in the war for our souls and remain convinced that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
