It's Never A Fair Fight

There is a strange honesty in the way life feels.

No matter who you are, or where you’ve been, there comes a moment when you look at the landscape of your existence and whisper something with a sinking heart:

“In the struggle of life, nothing is favored for my success or well-being.”

That’s how it feels.

It feels like the deck is stacked against you.

It feels like the winds blow hardest in your direction.

It feels like your weaknesses are exposed while everyone else’s strengths seem magnified.

It feels as though every step forward comes with two steps back.

It feels like the battle lines were drawn long before you arrived on the field—and not in your favor.

Some of you feel this in your finances.

Some feel it in your family.

Some feel it in your body.

Some feel it in your mind.

Some feel it in your spiritual life, where the same temptations seem to return with renewed strength, and the same discouragement whispers the same tired lies:

“You’re not enough.”

“You’ll never get free.”

“You’re always behind.”

“You’re fighting alone.”

There is a heaviness to that kind of thinking.

And for many, it’s not theoretical.

It’s Tuesday morning.

It’s 2 a.m.

It’s the doctor’s office.

It’s the marriage conversation.

It’s the job you lost.

It’s the child who wandered.

It’s the habit that won’t break.

It’s the voice inside your own soul saying, “I don’t think I can win this.”

And then, right as you try to steady your footing, the world adds something else.

A growing scandal, now in every headline: professional athletes—men and women at the height of their craft—caught in game-fixing and betting schemes.

Fights thrown.

Outcomes purchased.

Referees influenced.

Entire seasons revealed to be fraudulent.

People are outraged because the competition was not real.

The outcome wasn’t decided by skill or strategy or strength.

It was decided in a back room, long before the competitors ever took the field.

And I must tell you something today:

the outrage makes sense—because we believe deep down that real battles should be fair.

But here’s the surprise of the gospel.

Here is the revelation Scripture wants to give you.

In the kingdom of God, the fight is rigged too—just not the way you think.

From earth’s perspective, it looks unfair against you.

But from heaven’s perspective, it is unfair for you.

God has tilted the field.

God has weighted the scales.

God has stepped into the ring.

And before you ever threw a punch, before you ever swung a sword, before you ever prayed your first prayer or took your first trembling step of faith—

the outcome was decided.

You do not fight for victory.

You fight from victory.

And if you will receive this truth into your bones, it will change how you face everything in life.

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Let’s go back for a moment to that feeling:

“In the struggle of life nothing is favored for my success or well-being.”

That is the confession of the natural heart.

That is the testimony of the human viewpoint.

That is what your eyes see, what your history tells you, what your disappointment suggests, what the world teaches.

But faith does not begin with what is seen.

Faith begins with what God says.

And God says something different—something defiant, something bold, something that runs directly against every discouragement, every fear, every lie the enemy has ever spoken over you.

God says:

“If I am for you, who can be against you?” (Romans 8:31)

Do you hear the tone of that?

Not a question seeking information.

A question dismantling fear.

A question rebuking despair.

A question that lifts the believer’s chin toward the throne of heaven and says:

“Look again.

Look higher.

Look deeper.

You are not as outmatched as you think.”

Because when the Almighty steps onto the battlefield, the battle loses all balance.

When the Creator fights for the creature, the outcome can only go one direction.

When the Lion of Judah roars, every other voice in the valley falls silent.

When the King of Kings moves His hand, no enemy can stand.

That is why the Bible so often speaks in past tense about battles not yet fought.

Joshua stands before Jericho, staring at walls that scrape the sky, and God does not say, “I will give the city into your hands.”

He says:

“See, I have given Jericho into your hand.” (Joshua 6:2)

Before the trumpet sounded.

Before the marching began.

Before a single stone trembled.

Victory before battle.

David walks into the valley where Goliath is boasting and snarling, and every soldier is trembling behind the rocks.

David is outmatched, outmuscled, out-experienced—and God tips the scales with a single truth:

“The battle is the LORD’s.” (1 Samuel 17:47)

Victory before battle.

Jehoshaphat wakes up to see three nations marching against him.