
22 Feb Overcoming the odds
We’ve all listened to someone tell their story of success. Of how they started small but saw progress step by step. One may easily feel like a failure in face of someone else’s highlight reel. Did you know that it is a myth that it was all plain sailing? What successful people often fail to say is how much pain, difficulties, frustration, disappointments and problems they had along the way.
Let’s face it: when you do something significant for God, there is going to be resistance! You can’t bump a parked car. When you move, you risk. But take comfort in the fact that no matter how uncomfortable your life is at the moment, God is bigger than your discomfort. He is bigger than the resistance, disillusionment and pain.
In 1 Samuel 17:45-47 we read about David and Goliath. In the natural, David was no match for the giant. As with many other tales of battle in the Old Testament Israel seldom went out to fight saying “you know what guys? I think we’ve got this”. They always had to trust God while the odds were stacked against them. So if you feel overwhelmed in what you are currently facing, take heart, you are in good company!
God is glorified when the odds are against us. That will be bad news if you had to fight the battle in your own strength or your own wisdom. But remember what David said to Goliath: “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand …”
1 Samuel 17:45-46
‘Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you.”’
I believe that is a promise of God to you today. Our deliverance does not come by our own own efforts or our own wisdom. As a New Testament believer it comes through Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. My friend, you need to realize today that JESUS’ VICTORY IS YOUR VICTORY! The giant was defeated before he even got on the battlefield! The same way every enemy you might be facing today are already defeated by Jesus’ perfect work on the cross 2000 years ago. We can have boldness when our source of strength is Jesus Christ.