More Than Conquerors

When weakness becomes the place God shows strength

Thanks for clicking the link and reading the article. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you’re encouraged.

Do not let the headlines discourage you. Step away from the feed, get outside, and lift your eyes higher than whatever is trending today.

If you want these articles delivered to your inbox when I publish them, you can subscribe for free to Christianity Now on Substack. If you want to support the work and keep the archive available, you can support the brand for as little as a dollar a month on Patreon: www.patreon.com/ChristianityNow.

Use anything we produce any way you see fit with two stipulations: expand the borders of God’s kingdom, and tell people where you got it.

More Than Conquerors
When weakness becomes the place God shows strength

After a week of writing about heavy things, the soul can feel like it needs air. The news feed keeps flashing political unrest, the phrase civil war gets tossed around, and a man can sit at his own kitchen table feeling like he has no leverage at all.

Scripture gives a different measure of leverage. When God’s people get pressed into corners where human power does not reach, the Lord repeatedly turns faithful obedience into the point where His strength shows up.

For he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

The proposition is simple: God regularly brings His cause through moments where losing is visible, weakness is admitted, and victory comes anyway. The thread runs through Israel at the sea, Gideon’s reduction, David’s mismatch, the apostles under threat, Paul’s thorn, and the cross that led to an empty tomb.

More Than Conquerors Inside the Pressure

Paul describes victory that stays intact while pressure stays on. He uses words that hold steady when the situation stays hard.

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. (Romans 8:37)

Paul names the pressures that make a Christian look like he is losing. The list belongs to real life, including bodily need, danger, and violent threat.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (Romans 8:35)

The victory stays tied to the love of Christ, and that love stays present while tribulation stays present. The point belongs to a man who feels cornered, because the conquering happens “through him that loved us” (Romans 8:37).

Red Sea Faith When Escape Was Gone

Israel stood with water in front and Pharaoh behind, and there was no route on the map. Moses spoke to a trapped people with a command that fits a trapped moment.

Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. (Exodus 14:13)

Moses also gave the reason for their stillness. The Lord Himself would fight, and Israel would hold their peace.

The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. (Exodus 14:14)

When the sea opened and Israel crossed, the conclusion stayed clear on the far shore. The Lord was their strength, their song, and their salvation.

The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. (Exodus 15:2)

Gideon and the Math God Uses

Gideon assembled an army, and the number looked workable by human math. God refused that math because He guarded the conclusion as much as He guarded the outcome.

And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. (Judges 7:2)

God kept reducing the force until the victory could not be explained by manpower. The promise was specific enough to remove doubt about who would save.

And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place. (Judges 7:7)

That account belongs in a concrete moment like a man watching his influence shrink or his options narrow. Scripture shows that shrinking conditions can be the stage God uses to keep the credit clean (Judges 7:2).

David, a Sling, and the Name That Carried the Fight

David walked into a fight with the wrong equipment by human standards, and he carried a theology that matched his weapon. He named the real difference out loud.

Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. (1 Samuel 17:45)

David also stated the purpose God would serve through the mismatch. The victory would teach the earth something about the God of Israel.

That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. (1 Samuel 17:46)

David acted with skill and courage, and the victory still belonged to the Lord. A Christian learns to measure the fight by the name of the Lord, and the name carries weight when the odds look wrong (1 Samuel 17:45).

The Apostles Under Threat, and the Word That Kept Moving

The apostles faced political pressure that showed up in a courtroom and in a command. The council demanded silence in the name of Jesus.

Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. (Acts 5:28)

Peter answered with a line that does not depend on favorable conditions. The issue was obedience.

Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29)

The council beat them and commanded silence again, and the record also shows what they did after pain. They kept teaching and preaching daily.

And when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. (Acts 5:40)

And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. (Acts 5:42)

A man who feels powerless still holds real choices in his hands, including obedience, speech, and daily faithfulness. God has always moved His cause forward through those choices (Acts 5:42).

Paul’s Thorn and Strength Made Perfect in Weakness

Paul knew affliction and he also knew what it meant to plead for relief. He described the thorn and he described his prayer.

And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. (2 Corinthians 12:7-8)

God answered Paul with a line that changes how a Christian reads his limitations. Paul accepted the divine logic and stated the result.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9) Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

That truth belongs in a concrete setting like a man standing in a church parking lot after a hard phone call, sitting in a living room where bills are stacked, or driving home after a tense family conversation. Paul learned to live where grace was sufficient, and that sufficiency held steady while the thorn remained (2 Corinthians 12:9).

The Cross, the Grave, and the Dawn

The cross looked like the end, and the record speaks with sober clarity. Jesus finished His work and gave up the ghost.

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30)

Paul later wrote the gospel center in plain terms: death for sins, burial, and resurrection on the third day. The victory came through the darkest point, and the darkness could not stop the purpose.

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

The cross also carried a triumph that reached beyond what the eye could see on that day. God displayed victory over hostile powers through Christ.

And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. (Colossians 2:15)

Conclusion

The kitchen table, the news feed, and the talk of unrest can leave a man feeling like he has no leverage. Scripture measures leverage by a different standard: the sea that opened, the army reduced to three hundred, the shepherd with a sling, the apostles ordered to stop speaking, the thorn that stayed, and the cross that led to resurrection (Exodus 14:13; Judges 7:7; 1 Samuel 17:45; Acts 5:29; 2 Corinthians 12:9; John 19:30).

Paul’s sentence still stands over a week that feels heavy because life feels heavy. The conquering happens “in all these things,” and the strength shows up where grace is sufficient and weakness is admitted (Romans 8:37; 2 Corinthians 12:9).