More Than Conquerors: Finding Victory in Life's Hardest Battles

Life has a way of cornering us. Sometimes it's a medical diagnosis that arrives without warning. Other times it's a relationship that crumbles despite our best efforts. Perhaps it's a financial crisis, a wayward child, or simply the accumulated weight of disappointment that makes us wonder: Does God still love me when life hurts this bad?

This question echoes through the ages, from ancient believers to modern Christians navigating their own valleys. And Romans 8:35-37 provides one of Scripture's most powerful answers: "Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

The Reality of Suffering for Believers

The apostle Paul wasn't writing about hypothetical struggles. He was addressing real Christians facing real hardship—people experiencing famine, nakedness, persecution, and even death. This is a sobering reminder that following Jesus doesn't exempt us from life's difficulties. In fact, the very people who should theoretically be "blessed" were struggling with basic needs.

We often come to faith with presuppositions—assumptions about how things should work. Many Christians believe that surrendering their lives to Christ will shield them from tragedy. When hardship strikes anyway, we're left confused and hurt, wondering if we've been abandoned.

But here's the truth: the feeling of being forsaken does not equal the reality of being forsaken.

When Feelings Lie to Us

Psalm 44 captures this tension beautifully. The psalmist cries out, "All this has happened to us, but we haven't forgotten you or betrayed your covenant... Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered." Then comes the desperate plea: "Wake up, Lord! Why are you sleeping? Get up. Don't reject us forever."

Have you ever felt like God was taking a nap while your world fell apart? Like the disciples on that storm-tossed sea, panicking while Jesus slept peacefully in the boat?

The feelings are real. The fear is genuine. The pain is legitimate. But feelings are not final. The cross and the empty tomb are what's final.

The Story Behind the Struggle

Consider Elder Woody Jones, who lost vision in one eye to glaucoma before he even realized something was wrong. When he finally got his glasses prescription checked, doctors rushed him to a specialist—but the damage was done. Then came wet macular degeneration in his remaining eye, threatening to take what vision he had left.

Woody's emotional journey has been a roller coaster. He speaks candidly about his frustrations, about having to walk right up to a beautiful red tree just to see its colors, about the pity parties he occasionally throws for himself. Yet he doesn't stay in those dark places long.

Why? Because he's learned that God's blessings have multiplied even as his vision has diminished. He can still work, still bowl, still teach, still preach. His memory has actually improved—an answer to a specific prayer he offered when his sight began failing. And he knows that when he closes his eyes on this side of eternity and opens them on the other, the first thing he'll see with perfect vision is Jesus Christ himself.

This is what it looks like to be more than a conqueror.

Super Conquerors in the Midst of Suffering

The Greek word Paul uses in Romans 8:37 is hypernikomen—literally "super conquerors." We're not merely surviving our trials. We're not just white-knuckling our way through difficult seasons. We are conquering now, in the midst of the worst circumstances.

This isn't about our grit or determination. It's about His unbreakable, omnipotent love holding us when we can't hold on anymore.

Consider Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsy, imprisoned in the lice-infested barracks of Ravensbrück concentration camp. One night, Betsy insisted they thank God for the lice. Corrie thought she'd lost her mind. But because of those lice, Nazi guards refused to enter their barracks—which meant the women could hold Bible studies every night without interference.

The very thing that seemed like proof of God's absence became the doorway for the gospel to shine. This is the "in all these things" principle. Not in spite of suffering, but through it, God accomplishes His purposes and conforms us to the image of Christ.

Refusing to Interpret God's Love Through Circumstances

Here's the critical shift we must make: we cannot interpret God's love through the lens of our circumstances. We must interpret our circumstances through the lens of God's unchanging love revealed in His Word.

When the devil whispers that God must be on vacation, that He loves you less today than yesterday, that your struggles prove His distance—reject those lies. Return to the promises of Scripture. Remember the cross. Recall the empty tomb.

Jesus knows your affliction. Revelation 2:10 records His words to the suffering church at Smyrna: "Don't be afraid of what you are about to suffer... Be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life." The worst this world can do is take our physical lives—and for those in Christ, that's not a loss but a gain. There is no second death for believers.

What Changes When This Truth Takes Root

When this reality settles deep in your soul, everything shifts:

You stop panicking when plans fall apart. You quit measuring God's love by your comfort level. You find courage to face the things you've been avoiding—that hard conversation, that doctor's appointment, that overdue apology.

You stop envying Christians whose lives look easier. Your prayers become bolder and stranger, thanking God even in hospital rooms and unemployment lines. You become dangerously hard to offend because nothing can truly threaten you anymore.

You start risking more for the gospel. Monday mornings feel different because small annoyances lose their power to steal your joy. You learn to weep with suffering people instead of rushing to fix them with cheap theology.

Death loses its terror completely. And you finish strong when others quit—in marriages, ministries, parenting—because you keep loving, serving, and believing when every feeling says stop.

The Light Shines Brightest in Dark Places

There is no pain on this side of heaven that is purposeless. The moment God no longer wants you here, He will take your breath and bring you home. Until then, He is doing something significant in and through your suffering.

We don't merely survive trials—we advance the kingdom through them. We don't just endure—we are conformed to Christ's image. We don't merely hold on to God—He holds us with His omnipotent, unbreakable love.

Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. And if nothing can separate you, then nothing can ultimately defeat you. You are more than a conqueror through Him who loved you.

That truth can change your whole week. Your whole year. Your whole life.