Victory By Example
Stories from Sally, Peter, Mike, Bart, Sid, Paul, & Jesus
🔵 Introduction
"Christ In Us" - a previous study would be helpful => https://sidnash.org/docs/ChristInUs.html
"I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith"(Paul, Philippians 3:9 ). So, we have nothing in ourselves of which to boast. We have no ground for pride. Our only ground of hope is in the righteousness of Christ.
It is Christ who changes our heart. He abides in our heart by faith( Ephesians 3:16-17 ). We need to maintain this connection with Christ by faith and the continual surrender of our will to Him. So long as we do this, Jesus will work in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure ( Philippians 2:13 ). So you may say, with Paul, "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20 . So Jesus said to His disciples, "It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." Matthew 10:20 . Then with Christ working in you, you will manifest the same spirit and do the same good works.
Where there is NOT only a belief in God's word, but also a submission of the will to Him; where the heart is yielded to Him, the affections fixed upon Him, there is faith--faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Through this faith the heart is renewed in the image of God.
To illustrate these principles, I’d like to share some stories.
🔵 Sally & Peter
Sally, a friend of mine, grew up in an abusive, non-Christian home. There was really no safe place for her to retreat to – no place or person she could go to for comfort. There seemed to be only one thing she could do that brought her a degree of comfort – eat. She ate a lot of unhealthy comfort food. As a result, she became obese.
Many years later, she married, and became a Christian. But her overeating had become an addiction. Eventually, she came to recognize her own powerlessness and came to trust God more and more. But something was missing… As she was reading her Bible one day, she came across a story about Peter. It went like this =>
Matthew 14:24-33 The disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, "It’s a ghost!”
But Jesus spoke to them.... “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!” Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So [impetuous] Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Lord Save Me, Lest I Perish!” he shouted.
Whoa! Did you see what happened there? It was like Peter threw up the white flag of surrender. Overconfident at first, but then he recognized his own powerlessness. He knew that his only hope was in trusting in Jesus. This was absolute surrender by Peter. So, what happened? =>
Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”
Right here is an important key. Do we really trust God? How much do we trust Him? Well, that must have been quite a ride, standing atop the wind-tossed sea, but =>
When they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped. Then the disciples worshiped him. “You really are the Son of God!” they exclaimed.
In this story, Sally found her “sword” text. From that time forward, when she was tempted to eat unhealthily, she would cry out, in her helplessness, “Lord Save Me, Lest I Perish!” While in this surrendered condition, God was always faithful to give her the victory. Now, 50+ years later, by the Grace and Power of God, she still maintains her ideal weight.
You may recall what Jesus said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in [your] weakness.” –Jesus ( 2 Corinthians 12:9 )
🔵 Mike & Blind Bart
God had already delivered my friend Mike from his other chemical addictions, but his addiction to nicotine was stronger than ever. It was especially hard in the small town in which he lived. Safeway was the only grocery store and because of the way the store was arranged, he had to walk right by the cigarettes in order to get to the groceries.
Mike had tried the "5-day plan", patches and every other method of quitting that he had heard of. Oh, he quit smoking many times, only to pick them up again at a weak moment. Mike was about to give up when, as he was reading in his Bible, something caught his attention. It was the story of blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46-52 =>
As Jesus was leaving Jericho one day, with the typical large crowd of noisy people surrounding Him, blind Bart happened to be sitting beside that same road – begging. When he asked a passer-by what all the commotion was about, he was told that Jesus of Nazareth was approaching.
That was all Bart needed to know. You see, Bart had heard of Jesus, and knew he could trust Him. So, he immediately began to cry out, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me!” Some told him to be quiet, but he cried out all the louder, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me!” Finally Jesus heard Bart's pleas for help, came to him, and healed his vision.
This was exactly what Mike needed to know. Hope began to well up in his heart. Mike had found his sword text. It was then and there that he purposed in his heart, that whenever he was tempted, he would cry out, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me!” Seriously, he really did do this -- verbally, out loud! Mike told me, "People look at you funny… when you do that in Safeway... but you don't smoke cigarettes. No sir, you don't smoke cigarettes anymore."
Mike knew he was powerless over those sins that most easily beset him( Hebrews 12:1 ), but after he began to trust in God enough to surrender himself this way to Jesus and in spite of many temptations, he never smoked another cigarette -- for the rest of his life.
"And Jesus said unto [Blind Bart], Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way." ( Mark 10:52 ) We should ask ourselves “Do I have faith this great? Do I follow Jesus wherever He leads? Jesus said, “…If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes." ( Mark 9:23 )
🔵 Sid & Blind Saul
What about Saul, in Acts 9:1-6, before his name was changed to Paul? Saul had been persecuting the followers of Jesus. And now, he was nearing the city of Damascus to capture Christians and take them back to Jerusalem for punishment. Then, all of a sudden, a bright lite from heaven shown on Saul. He fell to the ground and heard a voice: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Saul said, “Who art thou, Lord?” The Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting… Saul, trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? This, my friends, was absolute surrender for Saul. This was, and still is, my sword text.
Back in June of 1994, defeated by sins that easily beset me( Hebrews 12:1 ), I began to understand how to surrender myself to God. As temptations came, it was like I threw up a white flag of total defeat, while unconditionally surrendering my will, not to the enemy, but to Father God. This was not the end of temptation for me, but it was the beginning of learning to cooperate with God, so that He could give me the victory, time and time again.
🔵 Victory Summary
Many of whom I have met, have had similar experiences of surrender followed by victory. Sadly, many of them thought a one-time or a few-time surrender would be enough. But, in my understanding, that is rarely the case. That certainly did NOT work that way for me. Early in my recovery, a full surrender was needed many times every day. Sometimes, after less than a minute of victory, a similar temptation would come to my mind. The longer our minds have been benumbed by thoughts of evil, the longer it takes to change that habit. I was an addict for 25 years.
But here is the good news. With each surrender to God, followed by victory in Jesus, the severity of temptation becomes slightly less and the duration between temptations becomes greater. IMHO, this is how It is Christ who changes our heart. He abides in our heart by faith( Ephesians 3:16-17 ). We need to maintain this connection with Christ by faith and the continual surrender of our will to Him. So long as we do this, Jesus will work in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure ( Philippians 2:13 ).
I want to be clear, that these principles are NOT just for addicts. These are the principles of Bible Sanctification, "the progressive work of a lifetime." Now, I will let the Bible give us an encouraging conclusion =>
Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Galatians 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Ephesians 3:14-19 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Philippians 3:8-10 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death,
🔵 Jesus – our Most-perfect Example - https://sidnash.org/crucified/index.html . Here, you will find more lessons of how to cooperate with Father God in this process of Sanctification, from our perfect example – our sinless Savior, Jesus Christ.
Desiring to live by every word that comes from the mouth of Jehovah ( Deut8:3; Matt4:4 )
-Sid Nash: 08/02/2025. Latest version: https://sidnash.org/docs/VictoryByExample.html
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