Its already done

When I was a junior in high school there was an arm wrestling championship for the school by weight class and the winner would go on to represent the high school in a district wide championship.   I was a wrestler, and for my size (122 lbs at that time), I was pretty strong so I signed up.  I beat all my challengers fairly easily, but when I found out that my opponent in the championship round was a senior named Jeff Kawaguchi who was also on the wrestling team and a better wrestler than me and a black belt in Judo and had rippling muscles with a body shaped like a giant letter V, my confidence teetered a little bit.  We had one week until we would arm wrestle during lunch time in front of the whole school and daily Jeff and his senior buddies would walk by and try to taunt me and intimidate me.  He tried to instill a fear in me so that I would give up even before we had the contest.
I decided however to be courageous and that I had a chance to win, since we were basically the same size.  For the 5 days previous to the match,  I would visualize myself beating him and also see the shocked look on his face and the cheers from all the underclassmen.  In my mind I would experience the thrill of victory.  Instinctually, spiritually, I knew that this was important and more than an arm wrestling contest for me, but a life lesson that I needed to learn. 
Because it was done in my mind, I was calm and relaxed about it when it came time to do it.  Not surprisingly it happened just the way I visualized it.  My enemy slithered away in defeat and shame and I felt 10 feet tall.  I went on to win the district championship as well 
I am not trying to be a proponent of positive thinking, but wanted to highlight a principle of faith.  When you know something is already done in the natural or the spiritual it is so much easier to walk through that circumstance or challenge with confidence.  In the Christian life everything is already done on the cross: your salvation, healing, sanctification, blessing etc.was accomplished 2000 years ago.   We were saved 2000 years ago, not when we asked Christ into our lives.   We were healed 2000 years ago, not at the point in time we ask for healing.  We were blessed 2000 years ago, not when we prayed for provision yesterday.   When we approach God from the standpoint of " its already done"- faith can do its job. 
Just like my classmate Jeff, the only weapon the enemy has is fear and intimidation, he is already defeated and you are already victorious.