Issue 1| 2023
Your Life Has Purpose
Your Life Has Purpose
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TRANSFORMED LIVES<br />
VL Publisher,<br />
Kristi Overton<br />
Johnson, after<br />
capturing the<br />
1999 women’s<br />
World Slalom<br />
Title in Milan,<br />
Italy.<br />
BY KRISTI OVERTON JOHNSON<br />
RECENTLY, WORLD-CLASS ATHLETE<br />
Vennesa Vieke asked me what I thought it<br />
takes to be a champion. For the next year,<br />
she and I spent time together talking about<br />
how I had achieved my success. It was fun,<br />
going back and sharing my 35-year athletic<br />
journey with my new friend. (See her story<br />
in <strong>Issue</strong> 03/2021.)<br />
What I’ve learned is that if you want to be<br />
a champion in anything—sports, relationships,<br />
careers, ministries, you name it—the<br />
principles are the same. If you want victory<br />
in your physical, mental, and emotional<br />
health, you must apply these principles.<br />
But here’s the kicker: mentally agreeing<br />
with them won’t get you anywhere. You’ll<br />
have to do the hard work, make sacrifices,<br />
and persevere daily.<br />
If you want to be a champion for the<br />
kingdom of God, you have to use the same<br />
principles.<br />
Let’s talk about that phrase, a champion<br />
for the kingdom of God. I chose those words<br />
deliberately because I’ve realized there<br />
are many champions of God who are not<br />
actively being champions for God’s kingdom.<br />
There is a profound difference.<br />
As believers, we are all champions in<br />
God’s eyes. And our champion status<br />
isn’t based on what we do. It’s based on<br />
the simple fact that we are God’s children.<br />
There are no chumps in God’s family, only<br />
champions.<br />
Right now, maybe you’re thinking, “No<br />
way am I a champion. I’ve never succeeded<br />
at anything. You have no idea what I’ve<br />
done or what has happened to me. God<br />
couldn’t possibly see a champion in me.”<br />
The Bible says otherwise.<br />
If you’ve put your faith and trust in Jesus<br />
for salvation, then you are His champion.<br />
The blood of Jesus has made you one.<br />
Romans 3:25 says, “For God presented<br />
Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are<br />
made right with God when they believe<br />
that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his<br />
blood” (NLT).<br />
While we were still sinners—not after<br />
we got it all together and had a champion’s<br />
success record—God sent His Son, Jesus,<br />
to die for us. Jesus’s blood makes us right<br />
in God’s sight (Romans 5:8–9). Because of<br />
Jesus, God can’t even see our failures. It’s<br />
the work of the cross that makes us His<br />
champions, not what we do.<br />
There is nothing we can do to become<br />
PHOTO BY ROSS OUTERBRIDGE<br />
28 <strong>Issue</strong> 01 / <strong>2023</strong> VICTORIOUSLIVINGMAGAZINE.COM