Advent is a time of preparation. We prepare our hearts for the coming of King Jesus, and we prepare space for him in our lives.
I have been praying about what God wants to prepare in my life and my heart this advent season. I kept sensing God speaking a specific word to me: Victory.
Where Do You Need Victory?
At first, I didn’t know what that meant. I wasn’t sure what God was trying to teach me. So, I started thinking about places that I wanted to see a victory.
Our world is definitely in need of a victory in many areas. We need a victory over the coronavirus, the sins of racism and greed, and over the broken systems that leave us all fragmented.
We need a victory on a personal level as well. Some of us need a victory over negative self-talk, over a sin that we are trying to conquer, or over our unmet expectations and disappointed hopes.
You may need a financial victory, a victory over a physical ailment, or a victory over your AP bio test.
I imagine that Mary and Joseph needed similar victories in their lives. They lived under Roman occupation, so the entire Israelite nation was crying out for a victory over oppression.
We don’t know much about Mary and Joseph's personal lives, but I imagine they had a few victories that they were seeking for themselves too.
God is powerful enough to give us a victory before we even know we need it. He could have overthrown the Roman government and sent a king to rule Israel in its place.
But, that is not the kind of God he is. He is a God who deserves to be glorified for the victories that he works in our lives.
So, God wants us to be aware of the areas in our life that we need His victory. And He wants to surprise us with the unexpected ways He brings victory.
He wants us to see our need for him. So, where do you need to see a victory in your life?
The Victory Is In His Presence
Once you have identified where you want to see the victory, it is time to figure out how to get that victory.
As I sought God’s victory in my life, I realized that getting the victory looks very different from what we think.
We think that victory comes through striving. If I can just work harder, be better, focus more, then I can earn the victory.
But God’s victory does not come through striving. Here’s the thing that God has been working to teach me.
The victory is in His presence.
When we seek God’s presence, we become more sanctified. The more time we spend being with the presence of God, the more His presence will permeate our lives.
His presence changes us. His presence accomplishes His will. When we spend time in God’s presence, we become the people He has called us to be. We become more than conquerors.
The first thing that the angel Gabriel said to Mary was, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:28)
God was already with Mary. She was favored because she sought His presence. She cultivated a life that was open to God’s presence. God chose her to be His vessel because she was already acquainted with God’s presence.
Because Mary was already acquainted with God’s presence, she wasn’t afraid of the life that He was calling her to. Gabriel explains that the Holy Spirit, the presence of God, would overshadow her.
Mary’s immediate response is, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:38)
She said yes to even more of God’s presence in her life. She sought God’s victory instead of her own.
God used her simple “yes” to bring victory to the whole world for all time.
If you want to see God’s victory, you have to seek His presence. That is where His victory is found. Say yes to God’s presence.
Don’t Let The Battle Wounds Distract You From the Victory
Victory is final; it is an end result. But, you cannot have the victory without going through the battle. We often want to skip to the victory, but we give up when the battle gets difficult.
Don’t let the battle wounds distract you. Mary and Joseph faced some battle wounds. Before Jesus was even born, Mary’s first battle was convincing Joseph not to leave her.
When they were traveling through Bethlehem, I have to wonder what Mary was thinking as they were turned away from all of the inns.
Was there a part of her that grumbled? Did she say to herself, “You can figure out how to send the savior of the world in this miraculous way, but you can’t make sure there’s a hotel room available?”
Did she question God’s plan or wonder if he forgot to think about the details?
Joseph hadn’t really signed up for this battle. He said yes when the angel told him to believe Mary, but he didn’t really know what he was getting himself into.
After baby Jesus was born, another angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told them to run because Herod was coming to kill the baby.
Did he question God at that point? Did he question his own decision to get involved with this whole thing?
I wonder if he said, “God, I’m just a simple carpenter. I wasn’t prepared for this life.
You’ve got the wrong guy. Maybe John or David would have been a better husband for Mary.”
I don’t know if Mary and Joseph had those thoughts. Maybe they were equipped with more faith than I have.
But I do know they didn’t give up. No matter what battles they faced, they continued to say yes to God’s presence and waited to see His victory.
There will be battles in your life, and sometimes you will get wounded. When I faced battles in my final year of teaching, I cried out to God in pain.
I remember praying, “God, I know you will win the war in the end, but I feel like collateral damage right now.” God heard my prayers and gave me what I needed to get through until I could see the victory.
No matter how damaged you feel, don’t let the battle wounds convince you to give up. Keep seeking God’s presence. Keep saying yes to his presence in your life. And eventually, you will see the victory.
Accept that God’s Victory May Look Different Than Yours
Sometimes the victory doesn’t look like what we thought it would look like.
I wanted God to change my classes or my administration so that I could enjoy victory as a teacher. I wanted to experience victory within that job, but God had a different plan for me.
God’s victory for me involved giving up teaching altogether (at least for now). When I quit teaching, I felt like a failure. It didn’t feel like a victory.
But in the past year, I have seen how God truly did bring a victory out of my career change. He has used my job to give me new passions, new ways of using my gifts, and the freedom to pursue other things that He has called me to.
I imagine that Mary felt the same. Fast forward thirty-three years. Mary had experienced God’s presence and seen Jesus enter his ministry.
We don’t know how much of his ministry Mary was there for, but she was definitely around for many events. I don’t know if Mary got to see Jesus feed the five thousand or if she saw him walking on water. I don’t know if she was there for his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
If Mary was there for those events, she might have felt like she was experiencing God’s victory.
We know that Mary was there for Jesus’ first miracle at the wedding at Cana. If she thought that miracle was seeing God’s victory, she had to be amazed by how much more God would end up doing through Jesus.
But, we also know that Mary was there when Jesus was crucified. No matter how amazed she had been by God up to that point, there is no way that she could look at her son being tortured and believe that this was what God’s victory looked like.
As she walked to the tomb to wrap Jesus’ body in spices and prepare him for burial*, she had to feel defeated.
*Biblical scholars disagree about whether Mary the Mother of Jesus was one of the Marys that went to the tomb on Easter morning. Here is a resource for more information: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/women-empty-tomb/
She may have carried myrrh and remembered the visit of the wise men after Jesus’ birth. I wonder if that was a painful reminder.
Mary was grieving the death of her son. There was not a victory in sight.
Of course, that all changed when she got to the tomb and encountered the risen Jesus. I wonder what she felt when she saw Jesus resurrected.
The victory God had promised her three decades prior included a victory over death, but the process of getting there was excruciating.
God’s victory through Jesus looked very different than what Mary or any of the other Israelites expected. They expected a political king. They got a servant-leader, who died a criminal’s death before rising to victory.
Don’t be surprised if God’s victories in your life look different than what you expect or want. God’s victories may look different, but they are so much better than we could ever imagine.
In the moments when you feel most defeated, that is when God is working in mighty ways on your behalf.
A Christmas Prayer
I pray that God would help you to seek His presence and that He would bring victory to your life through it. I pray that He would give us the strength to press on, despite the battle wounds.
I pray that God would use this Christmas season to prepare you for the victory that He is bringing. I pray that Jesus would give you the strength to keep going when the victory looks different than you expected.
That victory is coming, and it is found in His presence, the presence of the Holy Spirit.