“I got to tell her that I couldn’t do that, only God could heal her hand!” Juliana (my 9 yr old), says excitedly to me at 10 PM last night. “Whaaaaa!!??!! That is so awesome!!!! . . . Now, it’s time to go to bed.” Kids always seem to pull out the best conversation AFTER bedtime – haha. At school her friend was telling her about her sprained wrist, and she told her how they had prayed for mine on Saturday and it was healed (power in testimony!). So her friend said, “You can pray for mine if you want.” God is so good! That’s a win!

So what’s the difference between a win and a victory? Ultimately, we are seeking victory. Wins are awesome, but they’re also momentary. With God, what is the victory? Here’s some insight . . .

“This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. . . . This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” (1 Jn. 5:2,4 NIV)

To love Father God, His Son and from that place to love His kids, builds our faith and that is the victory. However, I’ve had wins that caused me to celebrate a little too much in MY heart and not continue to press in to HIS heart. There was nothing wrong with the win, but my response to it did not produce victory – and that’s the difference. God will want to give us more wins, when we are stewarding those wins to drive us deeper into His heart. I have had losses that demoralized me and I didn’t dive deeper into God’s heart either. Neither the wins or losses are as important as how we are stewarding them. Are we allowing both wins and losses to push us deeper into God’s heart? Because that is the victory. We can live in a state of victory with eternity written on hearts (Eccl 3:11) as we do that.

So, celebrate the wins, learn from the losses and use both as motivation to dive deeper into God’s heart – that’s the victory.