How to live a life of victory?

"Brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall." (2 Peter 1:10)

You shall never fall. When you think about it, that's a startling statement, isn't it? Most of us have been tripped up by the devil so many times we don't like to think about it. But the Word of God says it doesn't have to be that way. He says there's something that can keep us on our feet. What is it? Diligence.

If you haven't already, you need to realize how important diligence is. You need to face the fact that you simply can't live a life of victory without it. You can't stand strong on the Word of God and not pick your Bible up during the week. Sunday morning alone isn't going to get the job done. Yet most believers try to get by on that. That's precisely why we have thousands of churches all over the world filled with born-again people who don't have enough faith to blow their hats off. No diligence.

I remember several years ago when I ministered to a lady who was healed of cancer. She'd gotten into the Word, taken a stand of faith, and had been delivered. But several years later she called me and said, "Brother Copeland, I wish you'd pray for me. This cancer has come back on me again." Right away I recalled the scripture the Lord had given us to stand on those years before: "No weapon formed against you shall prosper." So I said, "Get your Bible and let's go back to Isaiah 54:17." In the background I could hear her whispering to someone else in the room, "Where's my Bible?" When I heard that, I almost cried out. I knew she wasn't going to make it. Why? No diligence.

Listen, this is a daily thing. The devil's out there 24 hours a day devising ways to make us fall. Jesus is on the throne 24 hours a day giving us power to resist him, and we need to be exercising our faith all the time. If you're going to stand in the days ahead, you're going to need a lot more than Sunday school faith. You're going to need some full-grown, mountain-moving faith, and there's only one way to get that: By giving yourself to the Word more diligently than you ever have before. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure; and no matter how slippery the situation gets, you won't have to fall!
Scripture Study: 2 Peter 1:3-10