Created to Overcome!

And God said, let us make man in our image, and after our likeness: and let them have dominion. Genesis 1:26

Tragedy, calamity, tests, trials, and temptations, we all have experienced them!  Have you ever wondered why God allows these things in our life?  Better yet, have you ever gone back to the beginning and wondered the reason things transpired in the Garden of Eden or with the serpent (Satan)?  I once asked God the question "why did you create Satan when he is such a factor."  Almost immediately, in my heart I heard His response, "because He is not a factor."  We need to see ourselves as created in the image and likeness of God.  No opposition is a factor for Him!  So nothing the enemy attempts to throw our way is a factor for us because we have authority over all of it (Luke 10:19).  God is an overcomer and opposition of any sort is merely an opportunity for Him to display His infinite wisdom, power, and glory!  I believe that that is the reason we feel so close to God at some of the most trying times in our lives.  God created us to overcome.  Even in the beginning, He created Adam (or man) to subdue (or overcome) the earth.  He created us to overcome our circumstances.  By the end of the world, two times in the book of Revelation the Bible states that those who end up with Christ overcame.  It states that "to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne" (Revelation 3:21).  Jesus is who He is because He overcame and was raised from the dead.  Great glory is displayed in opposition.  God (or Jesus) is seen as an overcomer due to victory in the face of opposition.  Revelations 12:11 also speaks of overcoming.  God did not create us for a life of smooth sailing.  You were created to have something to overcome!