We tell a double story about sin in the church. You sin because of Adam and Eve. When you sin, there are consequences for it. Parent your kids harshly? There will be a cost. Demonstrate unfaithfulness, selfishness, or pride? At some point, it will catch up to you in some way, big or small.

At the same time, we proclaim that by grace we have been saved through faith and not by our works so that no man can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). God wants us to know that we weren’t reconciled by anything we’re capable of achieving on our own.

We have victory over sin, but we’re going to keep sinning and dealing with the consequences of that sin.

So where does that leave us? Do we get to declare victory? Or do we have to pay? Is the redemption for now, or will we only experience it after death? Is there any lasting consolation on this earth?

I have a hard time believing God intended life to be a misery of continued reprimand. I also know as human beings, we are going to keep screwing up.

The Chaplain and I are reading daily devotional called Streams in the Desert, by L.B. Cowman. It was recommended by a friend last year, and this January, we started using it as a daily devotional. We have missed a few days, but I’ve found almost without fail that every day there is something in this devotional, first published in 1925, that touches me in some way.

Last night’s devotional was about praying as though we have already received what are asking for.

It’s one thing to understand a spiritual principle. But we are very good at convincing ourselves that what God said about certain things just doesn’t apply to us or our situation.

As we were reading the devotional, I was thinking about a specific issue I’ve struggled with for a long time that I haven’t been able to gain purchase with. Whenever I think I’ve made progress, it comes back and bites me again.

Does it fall in the category of things I should be praying for victory over as if the victory is already mine? Is it

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24

Or is this one of those times where

The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation. Numbers 14:18

I felt like I had an answer this morning. God wants me to pray for victory. But I’ve been around long enough to know this doesn’t mean I get the victory this side of heaven. So to grow my faith I have to pray as if I’ve already received what I’m asking for, to a God for whom time is not a constraint.

We’re like young kids in the car on a long road trip asking, “Are we there yet?” of a God who isn’t limited by time. And God is encouraging the kind of growth in us that would help us to rise above the limitations of time as well. That is how we pray for victory we have already received and yet haven’t.

We know how the story ends. Developing the strength to stand firm in that truth is the challenge.