Sing with me....."I'm strong to the finich, cuz I eats me spinach"

   I fully understand that saying what I'm about to say is going to make many of you sit back and say......."Woah............He's really old." That risk being fully understood, I'm going to say it anyway. When I was a kid, I really liked the old "Popeye" cartoons. Why? Well, he was this guy who was just a normal everyday guy. He made mistakes all of the time, but he always just seemed to want to do what was right.
   He was surrounded by quite an odd cast of characters. There was Wimpy, who always wanted to eat hamburgers, but never had the money to pay for them. Even though he was a bit of a freeloader, Popeye always seemed to be there to help him out.
   There was Bluto, an arrogant blow hard of a guy who always wanted to put an end to Popeye. No matter how hard Popeye tried to work with him and be reasonable, Bluto would always react by doing the most obnoxious things.
   Then there was Olive Oyl, Popeye's sweetheart. No matter what she did, he always looked at her as being the most beautiful girl (or "goyl") in the world. He absolutely adored her, and she absolutely adored him.
   Oddly enough, whenever Bluto really wanted to get to Popeye, he would always go after Olive Oyl. Why? Because he knew that she was the most important person in Popeye's life.
   As we watched those old episodes, we all waited for that one moment. You know the moment. It was when Popeye had finally taken all that he could, and popped open his can of spinach. We all knew that as soon as he got his hands on that spinach, Bluto was done for. We watched Popeye getting punched, kicked, knocked out, ripped off, etc., all the while just trying to be a nice guy and to be reasonable. I don't know about you, but I always wondered why he didn't just eat spinach all the time. I mean, why wait until everything went south before doing the one thing that could've changed everything from the start?
   We could all relate to his dilemma on some level. I mean, most of us really try to do what's right, don't we. And in doing so, we've all come up against those who try to take advantage of our kindness, or who see our kindness as a weakness to be exploited for their own benefit.
    Sometimes we look at the world around us and we think it's lost it's collective mind. As believers, we try to point out the wisdom of following Christ only to be mocked and rejected by a world gone mad. Why is that? 1 John 4:4-6 gives us the answer:

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.  They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit^[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood."
  
   So, what does Popeye have to do with 1 John 4:4-6? It's the very first line. "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." Right there is where we find our "Can of spinach."
   Forgive me for comparing our faith to a cartoon, but it's very true, isn't it? If we are believers, we have the Spirit of God Himself dwelling within us. Does that make us God, or does that make us perfect, or better than anyone else? By no means. We are still very much human, and very capable of absolute failure at any given moment. But His Spirit within us gives us insight and understanding that the world doesn't have.
   It also gives us one of the most powerful tools we could ever imagine - the ability to overcome anything we might ever face. How do we overcome this? By holding on to an eternal perspective which tells us that no matter what the world might throw at us, we will spend eternity with Christ enjoying the rewards given to us due to the faith that we held in Him during those moments of trials and tribulation, when the world punches us, kicks us, rips us off, or even goes after out "Olive Oyl" just to get to us.
   That's the good news, but here's something even better: We don't have to wait until the crap hits the fan to "eat our spinach." We can do so any time, any day, at any given moment by just taking the time to spend time in prayer and study, asking God to speak to us and show us what we need for that day, time, or moment.
   As Steve said on Sunday, (Or how I'll paraphrase it) "The amount of spiritual strength we feel in our daily lives is directly related to how much time we spend in study and prayer." Take time to get into heartfelt prayer, and into your bible every day. Even if it's just for 15 minutes before you start your day, it can make as much difference in your life as an endless supply of Popeye's spinach.