The important thing to remember is that people are the important thing. And people, no matter how hard they try, make mistakes. So if we're going to start doling out things like forgiveness, mercy, grace, and love according to how somebody acts... then realistically we won't be giving much of anything to anybody. Jesus, in a sense, said it like this, "...He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her" (John 8:7). And guess who threw the first stone. Nobody. Romans 3:23 says it like this, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." And I know that you know that I define sin as unbelief. Its not what you do, but what you believe that is really important. Because what you do flows from what you believe. We've all done things that we probably shouldn't have in order to get that thing that our heart desires. And the true desire of our heart... is love. We've all looked for love in all the wrong places. We've all tried to jump through hoops in order to get--to EARN--what we thought we didn't have. But love can't be earned. Because love is unconditional. God doesn't love us because of what we do. God loves us because of who we are. And who HE is. I still remember this very clearly, one day my son, Logan, asked me, "Daddy, why do you love me so much?" And without even thinking about it I answered him, "Because you're mine." Guys, I'm pretty sure that's how our heavenly Father feels about us. He loves us for the pure and simple reason that we are His. He created us in order to love us. We are how God expresses Himself. He loves us--so big and so much--to the point where we are filled to overflowing. And then that love--HIS love... His very being--comes out of us. Naturally. So that we CAN love each other with that same love, and in that way we can EXPERIENCE His love. Love is not about getting. Because love IS giving. So when we give it away, that's when we feel it the most. We receive it and release it. We receive it BY releasing it. By knowing and believing that we HAVE it, and giving it away. Sharing it. WIth whoever we come into contact with. Simply because they are human beings, and they are worthy of love. I've said this many many times: I don't think we should ever look down on anybody... except to help them up when they've stumbled or fallen. And we have the strength to do that because Jesus is the One who KEEPS us from falling. He is the voice that speaks the Word (LOVE) from behind us--not something in our future, but something in our past. Not something we need but something we already have--telling us that love is the way that we ought to walk in. It doesn't matter if we--or they--make mistakes. Mistakes don't disqualify us. Nothing can. All have sinned, right? We read that. But Jesus is the Lamb of God that took away the sin of the world. Those who are born of God CANNOT sin because His incorruptible seed remains in them. Can you still mess up? You can and you will. Because learning and growing takes time. And you learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes. But does messing up mean you're not worthy of love? Absolutely not. In fact... when you mess up, that's when you need love the most. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound!

Love. Its the desire of our heart. Its the thing that we want--that we NEED--more than anything else in order to truly live. Because I understand we need food, and clothing, and shelter in order to "survive." But what have you got if you don't have love? The kind that you just want to give away? Its that being filled to overflowing experience that IS true life. The eternal, everlasting, abundant, Resurrection Life of God. Its receiving and releasing the love of God by knowing and believing that He loves us. By USING the mind of Christ (that's already in us). Letting what's already there BE there. Not chasing something we think we haven't got, but experiencing what we have got by sharing it. That's what this life is for. We were created to be loved by God, and to love one another with that same love. And if that's why we were created, that means--by definition--we are worthy of it. What kind of creator would create something that wasn't worthy of its purpose? Where we get lost and twisted around sometimes is when we try to earn something that can't be earned. Because if you're trying to earn it, that means you believe you don't have it. And the main reason that I think people believe they don't have love is because they believe they are not worthy of love. They think all of the "bad" stuff they've done has disqualified them from being able to BE loved. "I'm too difficult." "I've messed up too bad. Or too many times." Those are the lies the world tells us, and we swallow them whole. Because to the carnal mind... you get what you deserve. That's what "makes sense." If I'm good, I'll be rewarded. If I'm bad, I'll be punished. My actions dictate what happens to me. And under the Old Covenant (to some degree) that's how it was. I mean, God DID put the entire system of animal sacrifice in place as a type and shadow of Jesus so that the people of Israel wouldn't get what they deserved. But then He took it even a step further when He introduced mercy and grace to the scene. Mercy is when you DON'T get what you deserve, and grace is when you get what you don't deserve. And both are personality traits of the God who is love. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love doesn't keep a record of right and wrong. Love doesn't discriminate. On the cross it was very literally ONE for ALL. When Jesus was raised up from the earth He drew ALL men into Himself. What He did... my mom always says, "Either the cross changed EVERYTHING or it didn't change ANYTHING." When Jesus remade the world in His image He did it FOR everybody and He did it AS everybody. No longer is there a "chosen people." God chose ALL people. That's what Romans chapter 11 is talking about with the grafting in of the branch. Paul brought the Gospel specifically to the Gentiles. He made it clear that this thing that Jesus did was for everybody. That everybody was worthy of love. That everybody could fill that God-shaped, love-shaped void inside of them. As long as they knew what to fill it with. And I'm telling you, the only thing that can fill a God-shaped, love-shaped void... is the God who is love. That's what He did when He drew us all into Himself. When He planted Himself in all of us. When He took up abode in us He equipped and empowered us to take up abode in Him!

Love is not something that can be earned. Because love doesn't keep a record of right and wrong. So its (He's) not weighing your "good" deeds against your "evil" deeds. That was the trouble that Adam got humanity into by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil--he entered us into a performance based, appearance realm where we judged things (specifically ourselves and each other) by what they looked like. We lost the ability to see things for what they really were. We lost the ability to see the bigger picture. To see that all things work together for good. Sometimes what we think is the worst thing that could ever happen is really just setting up the best thing that could ever happen. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can start to climb. Sometimes you have to "lose it all" to realize what you really have. Or what you really need. I find that a lot of the time the stuff we think we need is really just stuff that we want. And when you're chasing wants... it'll never be enough. You get what you want, and then you want something else. Its not satisfying. The true desire of our heart is to be loved. And only love can satisfy that desire. The tragedy is that we are so conditioned to believe that we're "lucky" to get the smallest scrap of "love" (usually a false sort of kindness that is more, "I'll scratch your back as long as you scratch mine") that we settle for so much less than what's available to us. Love is out there. Actually, love is IN there. Its in your heart. Always has been, always will be. All you have to do is let it in... by letting it out. All you have to do is know it and believe it. Receive it and release it. But the only way--literally the ONLY way--to do that is by letting the mind of Christ (that's already in you) BE in you. USING the mind of Christ to think the thoughts of God. Thoughts of peace and NOT evil. And notice that Jeremiah 29:11 doesn't say "thoughts of good and not evil." Because good and evil are on the same tree. Its not getting rid of evil so you can be good and earn that love. Its getting off that diet of works and labor and onto a totally and completely different tree. The Tree of Life. Which produces the fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. Which, again, is the only thing that will truly satisfy the desire of our heart. We, as a species, are completely controlled by love. Either we think we don't have it and we're controlled by the pursuit of it... or we know that we have it and we're controlled by the sharing of it. But, because it (He) has already been given to us, it (He) is not something that can be earned. You don't have to (and cannot) prove your worth through your actions. Now, again, I'm not saying your actions don't matter. Of course they do. I just wrote a whole Rant series about how important effort is. I'm saying... you can't get love by jumping through hoops. That's not how love works. When the Bible talks about wages, it talks about the wages of sin... which is death (not hell, by the way, but DEATH). That's what our "Spiritual work" earns us. No matter how hard we try, we can't earn love. Love is freely given (to all) and must be received. And I think the best way to receive it is by releasing it. Because you can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. So if you give it... that means that you believe (on some level) that you have it. That you are worthy of it. That you can share it!

You are worthy of love. Not because of anything you've done, or anything you haven't done, or anything you're going to do, or not do. You are worthy of love because you are a human being. Period. And, according to Paul's writing in Romans, there is NOTHING that can separate you from the love of Christ. There is nothing you can do to make Him love you less. And there is nothing you can do to make Him love you more. Not let me explain, because this is completely true of how I feel about my son, Logan. He's my son. And that means I love him with everything I have and everything I am (that's my definition of love, by the way). But. Having said all that... what you do matters. Actions have consequences. When Logan does something I don't like... I don't like it. But that doesn't change the way I feel about him. I still love him with all my heart. And I make sure he knows that. Because its so easy for us to use our own actions to disqualify ourselves from experiencing the gift we've been given. One of the most heartbreaking conversations I've ever had is with someone that I care deeply about telling me, "I've already messed up so much I know I'm going to hell. So what does it matter anyway?" Literally broke my heart. And not only because that's such an awful, perverted, twisted, ridiculous "gospel" that we present to people... but because someone I care about was hopeless. Its like those blasted flower petals where we pluck them... "He loves me, He loves me not," and just hope and pray we land on "He loves me." But really we have resigned ourselves to, "He loves me not." We've let our deeds define us. Specifically our "bad" deeds. We convince ourselves that we are NOT worthy of love. And then we settle for much less than we "deserve." We look for love in all the wrong places, and we find something that might kind of sort of resemble "love" and we grab it because we think its as good as it gets. We think something is better than nothing. We accept the "love" we think we deserve. But from that incorrect point of view--the one where we think we're on the "highway to hell" because we're "bad to the bone"--we don't think we deserve anything. We don't think we're worthy of love. And then (and this is the most tragic part) when we DO actually encouter the real thing, we can't handle it. We don't trust it. We push it away because it seems too good to true. We rob ourselves of the gift we've been given because we can't believe someone would give us something so good. But the truth of the matter is, God's love is not too good to be true. It is so good that it MUST be true. Because it is literally THE TRUTH. The ultimate truth of the universe: God is love and He loves you. No matter what. All of the time. Because love isn't just what God does... love is who God is. In order for God to stop loving you He would have to stop being God. And even if that COULD happen, it wouldn't. You were created for the express purpose of the God who is love loving you. You ARE His expression. His love letter to the world. Even when you're at your worst. Because good, bad, ugly, God loves you. He created you so that He could have something to love. And so that you could love Him by loving others with that same point. That, to me, is the only thing that makes life worth living. A life of being loved and loving others is a worthy life...

This one is a little bit tricky for me, but only because I'm so far in one direction on it. Normally I have an almost Will Graham-esque kind of super empathy where I can almost immediately and fully see both sides of a given issue. Which is why I almost always side with PEOPLE rather than taking a stand on ISSUES. I think the only important (or at the very least the most important) things in the world are God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. That, to me, is the long and the short of it. So when I say what I'm going to say its not me going against myself. Its me trying to explain myself. I always say, "When it comes to love... deserve's got nothing to do with it." Because, as I'm hoping to expand on for the next few days, we are ALL by the simple criteria of being human beings, worthy of love. And its easy to quote John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Jesus gave His life for the WORLD. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (John 12:32). He drew ALL MEN unto Himself. INTO Himself. So that all of humanity could come out of the flawed, sinful, walking dead experience of being in Adam and so that all of humanity could experience the everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life of God. A life of trying to prove our worth in order to earn our bread (or, the thing we REALLY wanted... love) by the sweat of our brow was traded for a life where we know and believe that we are loved and can, by receiving and releasing that love, live Jesus' life OF love! The problem, of course, is that we've been with ourselves at our worst. We know all of the horrible things we've done because we were literally and physically right there doing them. And for some reason, in our own minds, those bad things always seem to outweigh the good things. So we disqualify ourselves. We rob ourselves of the gift we've been given because we don't think we deserve it. Which, again, is why I always say, "Deserve's got nothing to do with it." God doesn't love us because of what we do or don't do. God loves us because of who we are. And because of who He is. Its like we read Romans 8:39, "Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord," but then we let anything and everything separate us from that love. We, like Adam and Eve in Eden's misty garden, hide from the presence of God (the presence of love) because we think He's mad at us. Guys... God is NOT mad at you. God is mad ABOUT you. Head over heels in love with you. God created us. And you can't create something from nothing. So we are literally extensions of HIM. Love created us out of Himself. And love can only create love. We were created to BE loved, and to love each other with that same love. That's our entire purpose. That's why we exist. We are the visible expression of the God who is love. We aren't just loved... we ARE LOVE! For no other reason than existing. So, what I'm trying to say (and will keep trying to say) is: You are worth it. You are worthy of love. No matter what.

I'm not saying you'll never come upon any obstacles in your life. Life is messy. It rarely goes as we plan. What's that old saying, "If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plan." Now I don't think its as bad as all that. And I don't think you should go through life WITHOUT a plan, either. Those who fail to plan, plan to fail, right? But what I'm saying is: We need to be flexible. We need to be able to see the bigger picture. Or, at the very least, trust that there IS a bigger picture. Trust that there IS a plan, and that its God's (LOVE'S) plan. And that it won't fail. Love never fails. But love doesn't always look the way we want it to. There's a song that says, "Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers." Because sometimes what we THINK we want is not what's best for us. Sometimes our greatest disappointments are really the breeding ground for our biggest triumphs. A setback is really a setup for a comeback. So when you inevitably DO come upon obstacles in the road--and I made a Guerrilla Gospel video about this today too--you need to walk accordingly. You need to know that everything is under Jesus' feet. And that our feet ARE His feet. That's why the mountains (that we make out of molehills) have been brought low. And the valleys (that we sink into and think we'll never be able to get out of) have been brought high. Its a straight and narrow path. No matter what it "looks" like. Which, by the way, is why we walk by faith and not by sight. There's a voice behind us on that highway of holiness that tells us, "This is the way, walk in it" when we get mixed up and stray from that path. And there's a HUGE difference between "walking it out" and "walking in it." When you try to walk something out in your own power you frustrate the grace of God (and I don't mean that God gets frustrated. I think He is patience personified. I mean your traditions, or your works and labor, make the Word of God of no effect). When you look for love in all the wrong places, instead of looking inside, you miss out on it. When you try to earn something you've already got, you end up robbing yourself. Obstacles are not something to struggle with. Obstacles are not something you have to figure out how to overcome. I guess, for the most part, I'm ok with saying, "God gives you mountains so you can learn how to climb." When Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt, God put them through the paces in order to purify and perfect them. But I also think we make things a lot harder on ourselves (and each other) than we need to. Because not everything has to be a battle. And not every "battle" needs to be fought. The ONLY battle that HAS to be fought on this side of the cross is the good fight of faith. Which is simply laying hold of eternal life. Receiving the gift we've been given, and experiencing that gift by sharing it. Receiving it and releasing it. Receiving it BY releasing it. What am I trying to say to end this Rant series? That we have it a lot better than we seem to think. That we don't have to be destroyed by every little thing that comes out. We can see it under our feet, and we can walk accordingly!

Its like we look for things to fight about sometimes. I don't understand it. "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God" (Matthew 5:9). And by "called" I think we're talking about "being identified as." Because we ARE the Son(s) of God. 1 John 3:2, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." So its not, "Make peace in order to be a Son of God." Its, "When you make peace you are manifesting the nature of God." We've been talking kind of a lot about Jesus fighting (and winning) the war to end all wars on the cross. But He didn't do that to be known as a great warrior. In fact, Jesus won that war by surrendering. He laid His life down so that He could pick it back up. And He did it to make peace. Its like how Jesus had the Word (love) and ministry of reconciliation, and how He gave us that Word, and ministry. Being a peacemaker--now that the war is over and the work is finished--doesn't mean you fight until there's no one left. It means you destroy your enemies by making them your friends. Kill 'em with kindness, right? So these mountains that we make out of molehills sometimes... these lines or walls that we put between us... a lot of the time its unnecessary. And, as always, I DO believe that there are things you should stand for. And there are things that you should not tolerate. But I believe a quote from Men In Black kind of sums up what I'm trying to say today: "Don't start nothing... won't be nothing." Sometimes we get all fired up about things that really don't need that much room in our lives. Or our heads. We let things that really aren't important become very important. And in that way we give those things power. Isn't that silly? Love is all-powerful. Which, as usual, doesn't mean MOST powerful. It means love has all of the power. Love IS all of the power. And yet we let things into our lives and we let those things run (or, worse yet, RUIN) our lives. Instead of taking things as they come, and learning and growing from them... or understanding that all things are under our feet and walking accordingly... we put obstacles in our own paths. I think your worst enemy is right between your ears. I think that we make things a lot harder than they have to be sometimes. When, really, Hebrews 12:1 (NLT) lays it out for us, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us." Strip off that weight. The KJV says, "lay aside." Let it go. Let go and let God. If God puts somthing in front of you--and I'm NOT talking about physical sickness, for the record--it is for your benefit. Others might mean it for evil, but God means it for good. All things work together for the good. So don't create problmes for yourself. Don't let things that don't matter... matter. If its a legit mountain, look at it as an opportunity to learn how to climb. And if its just a molehill... step over it. Don't stress about it. Walk by faith, not by sight. Don't pick fights. Be a peacemaker!

I think the best thing to do about a supposed "mountain" (obstacle, setback, whatever you want to call it) is to understand two things: 1. You don't need to overcome it. Jesus overcame the world. We were in Him when He did it. Its not something to fight against, or try to conquer. Because 2. All things work together for good. Some of the things we try so hard to conquer, or get rid of, or defeat, are actually things that are vital to our success. Remember what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:6-7 (NLT), "If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won't do it, because I don't want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud." The thorn in our flesh to keep us humble, right? I remember back in high school I wrestled my freshman year. And I was tall. And I was skinny. So I was good. But there was one kid I could NEVER beat. And I'm telling you... that certainly kept me from getting too cocky. Because I knew no matter how many people I pinned to the mat... if I ran into that kid from Lake Orion I was in trouble. I knew I had to work hard at practice. I had to put the time in. He was a mountain, if I can say it that way, but if it wasn't for him I might not have lettered in wrestling. He motivated me, I guess is my point. And I surely didn't see it that way at the time, but in hindsight I'm glad for it. So what I think I'm trying to say is... sometimes we need the things in our life that seem the "worst." Because, again, its all working together for good. I never did beat that kid, and at the time that was it the worst thing ever. But it helped make me who I am. So. Molehills don't have to be mountains, and mountains don't have to be problems. ESPECIALLY when you consider Hebrews 2:8, "Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him." All things are under Jesus' feet. He is the conqueror. And when He conquered, we were in Him. He was lifted up from the earth and we were all drawn into Him. As He is, so are we in this world. So everything that is under His feet--which is EVERYTHING. Love is all-powerful. Which doesn't mean MOST powerful. It means love has ALL of the power--is under our feet. The problem is that we don't SEE everything as under our feet. We see ourselves as "able" to overcome, if we try hard enough. When the truth is we HAVE overcome. Because 2,000 years ago HE overcame. And that's what the first part of the next verse, Hebrews 2:9, says, "But we see Jesus..." Its HIS blood, and HIS testimony. HIS finished work on the cross. That's why every valley has been made high and every mountain made low and every twisted thing made straight. Jesus IS the straight and narrow way that we go when we walk by faith. When we let what is true be true for us. When we stop fighting everything in sight and just let things be what they are. Learn from them. Grow. And keep going upward and God-ward!

We really are pretty good at making mountains out of molehills, aren't we? Especially in the church world. I've never seen people more ready to fight than "religious folk." I think that's why the idea of "driving the sin out of the camp" is so popular in so many places. And, to a degree, I get it. Its easy to have something to focus on. Something to rally against. And when you're fighting--even if you're losing sometimes--at least it feels like you're DOING something. Because with this understanding of grace, and mercy, and rest... sometimes it feels like we aren't doing anything. But, as always, rest is NOT inactivity. Rest is Holy Spirit directed activity. And the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth--ALWAYS directs us to love. It drives me bonkers when I hear people say things like, "Well, I'd like to help but let me pray on it first." Helping is the whole deal! Caring about people. Seeing a need and meeting it. Loving people. You never have to try to figure out whether or not you're supposed to love someone. Spoiler alert: You're supposed to love them. Follow your heart. Do what you can do, where you're at, with what you've got. And don't borrow trouble. That's kind of the main point I'm trying to make. Jesus won the war to end all wars. That means there are no more wars to fight. We don't conquer, or overcome, when we decide that we have earned the power to overcome. We HAVE overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the Word (love) of our (HIS) testimony. We overcame when HE overame. Let me say it like this, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). And again like this, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37). We don't have to overcome. Jesus already overcame. We don't have to conquer. Jesus already conquered. We are MORE than conquerors through Him. And the best way to explain this is like this: If you're a boxer, and you win your fight, and you get the payday... you're a conqueror. But if you're a boxer's WIFE, and HE wins the fight, YOU still get the payday. HE conquered, and you're MORE than a conqueror. He did the work, and you get to enjoy the fruit of His labor. So while I can understand the impulse to fight... the only fight left at this point is the good fight of faith. Laying hold of eternal life. Receiving and releasing the gift that we've been given. I can see the wisdom behind the saying, "God gave us mountains so we could learn how to climb." But there's a more excellent way that says, "Jesus brought every valley high and every mountain low." He made the way straight. So all we would ever have to do is walk by faith. Know and believe that Daddy took care of it. Know and believe the love of Christ, and by knowing and believing it... experience it by sharing it. By giving it away. By letting things be what they are, and (I might hit this hard tomorrow) knowing that all things are already under our feet. We don't have to conquer. We don't have to overcome. We simply need to know how things really are. Then we can stop working (in the "trying to earn Spiritual things through our works and labor" sense) and start resting. We can stop struggling and start enjoying the life we've been given!

Have you ever heard the expression, "God gave us mountains so we could learn how to climb"? I think its used when we face adversity, right? So instead of looking at obstacles as "problems" we can see them as "oppportunies." I get that. I think we could all benefit greatly if we would stop judging things according to appearance and start judging (or executing) righteous judgment. But I think what the book of Isaiah tells us gives a whole different idea. "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain" (Isaiah 40:4). See, I think the idea of the straight and narrow path that leads to life being a hardship is totally wrong. Its straight. Its narrow. The mountains have been made low. The valleys have been exalted. Its not crooked, or rough. Sometimes it FEELS like a long and winding road, but... quite honestly... sometimes we STRAY from the path and make things much harder than they have to be. See Jonah, for example. But if the way is straight, all you really need to do is put one foot in front of the other. Walk by faith, and not by set. Let the Word of God (which is Jesus, which is love) be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. Look at another verse in Isaiah, Isaiah 30:21, "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." So first things first, the Word (again... Jesus... LOVE) is BEHIND you. You're not following the path (or the Way--Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life) in order to GET to the Word. The Word is from the beginning. The Word IS the beginning (John chapter 1). And its this Word, LOVE, that comes from behind you... that comes from the finished work of the cross... that keeps you on that straight and narrow path when you start to lose your way. When you--and this is really the thrust of my Rant series--start to make mountains out of molehills. Because I DO believe that we go through things. I'm not blind to the tribulations of this world. But believe we go through things for mainly two reasons: 1. To learn and grow. 2. To help others when they go through what we've gone through. But I think a lot of times we see mountains where they aren't any. We create problems. We try to do things ourselves instead of resting in the finished work of the cross. We try to FINISH the work, and miss out on enjoying the fruit of HIS labor. We try to overcome, instead of understanding what it truly means to BE an overcomer. You can't be an overcomer until you overcome. Labeling yourself as an "overcomer" doesn't mean all of a sudden you can overcome things. We OVERCAME (past tense) by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Because His blood IS our testimony. HIS testimony is our testimony. HE made the mountains low and the valleys high. Which is what allows US to walk the straight and narrow. We don't have to learn how to climb every mountain we put in our own way. We can, in all honesty, walk on water. We can stop letting the exterior dictate to the interior, and we can live from the inside out!