Alphabet of Love - O is for Overcome

Right now I feel rather overcome by allergies. I keep telling my body to stop freaking out over the tiny particles floating in the air, but it’s hopeless.  For some reason, the only thing that it seems to listen is Zrytec ®.

My allergic reaction to pollen is not the only thing I can be overcome by. There is also fear; negative thinking; depression; pride; indifference; insecurities; guilt; escapism; …. The list goes on and on. The old me which buys lies in bulk on deception wholesale market.

But, that’s not who I am.  Or at least, not all that I am.  For, since Christ intercepted my life, there is also this new me.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

From the day of spiritual collision, I have been waking up every morning noticing that my New Me actually likes sleeping in, and the Old Stinker is usually up first. I hate it! But instead of being condemned to the life of old (using word ‘life’ very loosely here), I now I have an opportunity to rip the covers off and wake up the New: Rise and shine! Paul in Ephesians puts it in slightly different words:

In reference to your former way of life  lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Ephesians 4:22-24

Sometimes this ‘laying aside’ of the old feels like peeling the skin off my body. Other times, it comes right off like dead skin.  Sometimes, the ‘putting on the new self’ feels like slipping into a pair of perfectly fitting jeans (which, by the way, I am still searching for).  Other times, I feel like the shoes are way too big and I can only swim in them (or rather drown?) – never walk or run.  There seems to be a bit of art and a bit of science and a large bag of mystery to all this, for you can’t quite put it into a formula, patent it and put it on the belt for mass-marketing.

But, each day, in fact, several times every day, I still am presented with a choice.  To be overcome… or to overcome.   The Old or the New? Which will it be?  

And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.  Revelation 12:11