One Card Left Series

What do you do when it appears that all hope is gone? When you gave it your best and your best just wasn’t enough. Did you quit? Did you give up or give in? Did you make the right decision? What did you do or what will you do with the last card in your hand?

I have yet to meet a human being who has never faced any turmoil. I have never met a person who was born and raised on easy street. At some point everyone gets hit by the big one, damaged by a rouge wave, or dehydrated by the fires of life. It’s inevitable. People of faith get hit, people without faith get hit; everyone will have to deal with failure at some point in their life. But just because you fail once or twice it doesn’t mean that the game is over.

For whatever reasons some Christians mess this up. They irroniously believe that Christians are immune to the pitfalls of life. They think that if you pray enough or study God’s word enough or walk close enough to God that you won’t ever have any problems. One week after Josh was diagnosed with Leukemia a man who used to attend our church sat across the table from me and told me that the reason my son was sick was because I didn’t pray enough. In his mind Christian’s shouldn’t get sick or suffer loss. He honestly believed what he said. I was in such a state of shock at the time that his comments made me question my own beliefs. I ended up meeting with a counselor to help me regain my confidence in my own theology.

I think the Apostle Peter may have been a little off in his beliefs at one point. He had seen God’s hand on Jesus. He had personally witnessed Jesus heal people and had seen God at work. Life was good for Peter. Then one day Jesus had something to say that concerned Peter.

“From then on, Jesus began telling his disciples what would happen to him. He said, "I must go to Jerusalem. There the nation’s leaders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law of Moses will make me suffer terribly. I will be killed, but three days later I will rise to life."

Peter took Jesus aside and told him to stop talking like that. He said, "God would never let this happen to you, Lord!" Jesus turned to Peter and said, "Satan, get away from me! You’re in my way because you think like everyone else and not like God.” Matthew 16:21-23 CEV

Peter thought Jesus was going to be the next king. When Jesus said he had to die Peter equated that with failing and in his mind God would never let Jesus fail. But Jesus confronted him by saying “Satan get away from me.” That’s a very stern rebuke. Jesus knew what he came to do and he knew that God would let him go through dark days for a greater purpose. Peter thought Jesus was folding his last card but Jesus still had one card left that nobody could see.

If God allowed his own Son Jesus Christ to go through dark days he will allow you to go through a few as well. You may feel like you are failing and you may even fail a few times but God is still working and he wants to help you make your next move. So what’s it gonna be? What are you going to do if the odds are not in your favor?