Impossible Odds

In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day - Chapter Two Notes

Control is something many of us desire above all else.  What are things we like to control in our lives? Ex. How our kids turn out.

The problem with this is that control is a lie.  We can never experience total control in our lives because of variables not under our control.  Some things are left up to chance.  We “play the odds,” hoping for the best.

At some point, those odds are stacked against us.  The natural reaction is fear, despair, and relying on our own power to get us through.  But God has a bigger plan, and a better way of looking at “odds”….

God likes “impossible odds” because that’s when He gets all the glory.

-Ex. Gideon (Judges 7)

-It’s when the odds are seemingly impossible that we have to rely on God to do what we can’t.

-When God performs miracles like this, He gets the glory, and we get the blessing.

Focus on the odds causes us to have a diminished view of God

-God is omni-dimensional; the construct of God is that exists in our mind is nothing compared to who He actually is.

-Faith allows us to break free from space-time and do the extradimensional through a God that isn’t limited in the ways that we are.

Odds are irrelevant because God controls our destiny

-Chess Master example.

-As a child of God we can have a sense of destiny.

-Our problems aren’t circumstantial, they are perceptual.

Closing thought:  Odds are simply a predictor of outcome.  The better the odds, the better the chance a certain outcome occurs.  But God doesn’t operate this way.  He doesn’t pull the lever on the slot machine, hoping that all three symbols match up.  Instead, He determines what the outcome will be.   Chance is not a part of the equation.   God’s outcome is always good, because His word says he has our best interests at heart.   This is the sense of destiny that we can have as believers; that God has an outcome for us that isn’t based on luck, but carefully and thoughtfully planned out by a God who knows our needs, knows our future, who controls all things, and who loves us as dear children.

Challenge:  “Our problems aren’t circumstantial, they are perceptual.”.  How does this truth change the way you look at the lions you are facing (or are going to face)?  Commit to viewing your circumstances from God’s perspective, not your own.