When Victory Doesn't Feel Like Victory

Sometimes I think we expect victory to feel differently. If you think about it realistically, victory is something that is won, and winning denotes effort, and effort typically brings fatigue, and fatigue is often accompanied by a loss of some kind (energy, health, life, etc). In short, most objectives are not gained without cost.

So, if you're worn thin right now, tapped out and trying to catch your breath, it might just be a sign that you've won. Now and then I experience the successful end of a spiritual or personal battle and feel absolutely steamrolled.

Can you see the soldier in Ephesians 6, at the end of a long day on defense and offense, standing a little bloodied, certainly a bit weary, but standing nonetheless?

Consider Paul's shipwreck in Acts 27:25-26. The only way to the safety of terra firma was through the foundering of the vessel Paul was on. The island your ship wrecks on just might be your salvation.

Victory may arrive in strange ways, it might not feel like victory, and it will probably come at a cost....but for the one who is leaning hard on the Almighty for deliverance, it will come.