Victories in Jesus

     "Oh Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever..."  It has been a very long time since I have sung that wonderful old hymn.  I can't even remember how long it has been.  But it is a song I like to sing every now and then as a reminder of His goodness.
     Here at school, we take time away from classes to participate in Day of Prayer and Bible conference.  They are wonderful days when we can simply dig into God's word, meditate on it, and worship Him.  I love these days.  Seeing everyone come together to worship and rest in His word, it's like glimpsing what Heaven will be like, and it makes me so excited to live like that for all eternity.  But over my few years here, I've noticed a trend among the sessions.  The trend is the topics of pain and struggling, and admitting that we're going through it.
     Now struggling is an important issue, I'll be the first to say so.  We need to remember our humanity, our brokenness and our failings.  We also need to remember that we are not alone in our suffering.  But in all that remembering, I think we lose sight of another important topic.
     There's so many people who refuse to live in the past.  They say they don't want their past to define them, or that the past is the past and cannot change, so why bother dwelling on it?  And whenever something bad happened, I'm one of those people.  But in living so much in a present- and future-minded way, we have gotten to an instant-gratification mindset and we forget the lessons the past had to teach us.  
     In such a way, I think we often forget to dwell on the victories that God has brought us through.  We get caught up in thinking about all that still needs to be done.  We forget the blessings and the victories of the past.  We forget about that very thing that gives us our hope for the things God will do.
     How often do we rejoice and worship in those victories?  How often are we just wowed and awed by what God has done?  How often are our thanksgivings off-the-cuff- niceties?  "Thank you Lord for getting me through this week."  "Thank you for the wonderful weather we had."  "Thanks for helping me pass this test."  "Thanks for letting the interview go well."  Thanks for this small detail of my life that I will forget about in ten seconds.
     Most often, our praise of God focuses on His death on the cross and what that meant for us.  And while that is huge, fundamental, and very important, it's also limiting.  Our view of God is too small if we think that His sacrifice and what He will do is all He's good for.  We have such a tremendous opportunity to be astounded by what God has done, and to be blown away by why we place our hope in Him.  "God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He's so good to me."  He continually shows us that, and we so often forget.