my God & my dog (Hamish)
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Being victorious

12/8/2011

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_ Dog’s don’t actually have long term memories according to experts, but rather associative memories.  A dog remembers people and places based on associations he has had with them.  He associates you putting on a coat and picking up a lead with him going for a walk. 

A vet online said “Associative memory can work towards the negative as well. If a dog has a traumatic vet visit after a ride in the car, he can react to car rides with fear until that memory is replaced by associating the car with getting to go out and play. The stronger the association, however, the harder it is to change the memory.”

I am exactly the same way.  When I come across a situation that in the past I have reacted to negatively, I tend to be like Hamish on auto-pilot and react to it like I always do, without thinking.

Are you like that with a situation or temptation?  

Romans 8:35,37
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ...

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

I have realised a lot of the time I live as if Satan hasn’t already been defeated but will be.  Sometimes I can’t get that saying out of my head (which has loads of variations) – ‘the battle may be lost but the war is already won’.
Maybe it's how I look at things, but I think we can then live with the expectation that we will fail in the short term, rather than live with the expectation we will be victorious. 

I know in my head the truth but every day practically,  I need to be reminded that Satan has already been defeated, already lost. 
Alistair Begg put it this way “Satan has already been checkmated at the cross.”  It’s over! 
But so often I don’t live a life of victory but rather to often, one of defeat. 

We will go through trials and temptations it doesn’t mean that we won’t but in our choices, reaction or our attitude to it – do we believe we are more than conquerors?  That God will give us the strength?  I used to say yes without thinking. Then I realised in all those small, forgot about situations, I didn’t practically believe that Satan has already been defeated:  That I don’t need to respond to it with defeat or the same negative way. 

It doesn’t depend on anyone or anything else.
It’s up to me and you to live a victorious life in Christ, because Christ has already conquered. 

And like a dog, we can build new positive auto-pilot associations when we come across certain situations. 

2 Corinthians 2:14
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

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