How do you deal with victory?

...by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

(2 Peter 1:4, ESV)

I like to win.  I really like to win.  Now there's nothing wrong with losing, but if I am given the choice then I choose winning over losing.  The spring is the time of sports in our household.  Anna has her soccer, and John has his baseball.  Both Anna and John would rather win than lose.  I can still see the faces of our children in my mind's eye when they each had recently won their game.  Excitement and enthusiasm succumb defeat and for the rest of the day, we all as a family bask in this enthusiasm with them.  It is infectious.  It is encouraging.  It is fun to win.

It's OK to lose because deep down inside we know that without losing, we would never be able to know the great joy of winning.  But I fear that we are being taught a spirit of complacency.  I hope I am wrong!  This goes way beyond my idea of winning in sports and has infiltrated our understanding of living out our Christian life.  Instead of striving for Christlikeness, we become complacent to hold the status quo.  Instead of striving for holiness, we say this sin or that sin is OK.  Instead of striving for a passion for God and what He is doing in our midst, we stop short fearing that we may offend someone.  Could it be that we have been taught through this spirit of complacency that a status quo Christian life is OK?  Are we afraid to be victorious over the power of sin in our life?  Are we afraid to win?  

May I suggest to you (and me, too, because the Lord knows that I need to hear this) that we don't have to live in the power of sin and defeat?  It is not how God has intended us to live.  We don't have to be complacent, but rather we can bask in the joy and enthusiasm of victory!  Our passage today reminds us that there is available to all a Divine nature that enables us to escape from the corruption of this world.  My friend, throughout the tapestry of Scripture, there is a thread of power that we have access to, and this power is not of ourselves or based upon what we do.  This power generates soles from the Divine nature that is waiting to take over the life of every Christian.  It is a power to gives us, as Peter describes, power over sin.  Whether we call this power the Divine nature or the Holy Spirit, it is available to all Christians and it is tapped into when we surrender our flesh to its rule.

What would happen in our world if every Christian tapped into this Divine nature?  What would happen if we did it today?  What changes would take place?  How would we react?  How would our calendars change?  Winning in our Christian life bubbles enthusiasm within every nook and cranny of our lives.  How will you deal with victory today?