Lesson 11: Defining victory
Romans 8:33-37 
33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

 What does victory look like for us as we battle to overcome our addiction? First, victory does not mean you will never want what you have been doing in the past. You may always have some kind of desire for what you fought to overcome – that is merely a consequence of sin. God does not promise to remove all consequences from our lives. This may be because Jesus knows how easily we can fall into the pride of believing we can overcome anything, so He leaves some of our scars behind to remind us we need Him.

Victory does not mean we will be perfect and sinless here on this earth. Perfection will not happen until we receive our new bodies from Jesus when He returns to bring us to Himself. Remember, Jesus does not expect perfection from us; He expects us to learn to live by faith in Him – progress day by day and one day at a time. He expects us to learn to become an overcomer – Romans 8:37.


Victory gives us hope. And the purpose of hope is to purify our lives – 1 John 3:3. There is a difference between purity and perfection. Purity simply means we do everything in our power to stay away from things Jesus does not want in our lives. It means we do the best we can and leave the rest to Jesus who will tell us when He sees something in our life He wants us to change. We obey Him immediately through confession of sin and turning away from what He wants us to leave, and then continue in the work He has given us to do. Our life here is no longer our concern, only our daily walk with Him is our concern now. When we get that right everything else flows from there and falls into place in our lives – the place God wants. Our progress is a day by day journey and not a destination.

Verse to memorize: Romans 8:37.

Your prayer: Dear Jesus, I want to serve You because You are setting me free from myself. I can see more clearly now than ever before how I am unable to run my life in such a way as to honor You, so I give myself to You and claim Your promise from Matthew 6:33 that if I seek Your kingdom first You will supply all my needs. Thank You for the privilege of serving You.