This ministry is all about helping you find Victory over anxiety, depression and addictions. The principles we teach will do just that. But there is another victory that needs to be won and that is the victory over self. Each of us are born into a world that shapes us. Our community, our family shape us unknowingly and likely with no ill intent. Their influence, nonetheless, is there. God uses the godly influences to shape us to become people He boldly uses to communicate His great love for mankind through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. On the other hand, Satan loves to use ungodly influences to shape us to become people he can boldly use to promote uncaring, sinful living. If all this is true, who has been used to influence you? That can be a sobering question. When we learn that we’ve been influenced for either good or evil, and we take stock of our lives, we may see areas of our lives that have not met God’s standard of holiness. At this point it is imperative that we confess our sin to God and ask for forgiveness. Then we need to take steps toward living an ongoing holy sinless life. God helps us with this task by telling us to make His Word a big part of our lives. His Word transforms us into new people, people who love what God loves. Now, the natural part of us doesn’t want to take time to diligently learn and apply God’s Word to our lives. But the godly side of us does want us to seek God and be holy. Not only that, we’ve grown accustomed to doing what we want to do, even if it isn’t wrong, We just like doing what we want. All of this makes for a great battle in which we must find Victory. Victory over anxiety, depression or addictions is great, but victory over self is even greater. This victory starts when we receive the free gift of God, the gift of salvation. “Salvation from what?”, you might ask. In the Book of Romans, verse 6:23 it says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.” This verse reminds us that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. He endured untold pain from whipping and being nailed on the cross in our place. Our sin caused His death. The result of this is our freedom. We are now free to live life without guilt. Recognizing and receiving this great gift is our first step in entering into a relationship with God. The next phase is allowing God to mold us into becoming mature, holy, loving individuals that He can use to influence His world. This is the challenging part. Life can be so busy, and our natural desire to be lazy and do what we want gets in the way of this maturing process. How sincerely do we want to grow in our spiritual lives? It’s great to have our sins forgiven and know that God is preparing a home for us in heaven one day but are we willing to shoulder the responsibility of increasing our knowledge of Christ and model the changed life that goes along with that? That is the question of all questions. And it is a battle some days. In Revelations 3:16, 17 it says, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth”. Do not drift into becoming a lukewarm Christian, decide today that you will be a ‘hot’ man or woman of God. Ask God today to help you be that kind of person. What could that look like? Maybe read those chapters of the Bible in the mornings and pray, make it to Sunday School, get to the Sunday evening church service, attend the Wednesday Bible study and prayer meeting. Whatever it is, be hungry for God. You will become an individual that He is proud of and is willing to share with you the great truths of life. Give yourself to God with everything that is in you. And let God do with you what He wants. The world has yet to see what God will do with the man or woman who is completely devoted to Him. You lead the way. Show us the glory when we truly find Victory over self.