Even If the Odds are 1000 to 1
We live in a society where odds are placed upon almost everything. Sporting events. Lotteries. Casino games. Is it a boy or a girl? Odds are nothing more than a numerical expression, often in the form of two numbers, which gives the likelihood that something will or will not occur. Regardless of the platform, the chances of winning are always stacked against the person placing the bet.
With the proliferation of sportsbooks and online gambling apps, betting is now easier, and can I say more harmful and addictive than ever. The Super Bowl has endless things to bet on. You can even bet on the exact length of the national anthem or the color of the Gatorade dumped on the winning coach. How about placing a bet on if, when, or where a certain singer’s private jet will land.
Betting language is a part of our daily vocabulary, sometimes not even recognizing it, since it is not expressed in numbers. Opening a new restaurant might be considered a roll of the dice, meaning the odds could tilt in either direction as to whether the venture succeeds. Or how about, against all odds, she beat breast cancer. After bumping into a neighbor who moved away years ago, you get home and say to your spouse – “Bet you can’t guess who I just saw,” meaning you see it as unlikely (odds are low) they will know.
Sometimes we are just happy with any chance of success, no matter how small that chance might be. In the movie Dumb and Dumber, after Mary tells Lloyd that there is only one out of a million chance that they will end up together, he says this – “So you’re telling me there’s a chance. Yeah!!!”
Maybe right now you face some obstacle that seems insurmountable – the hole is too deep, the pain is too great, the mistake is too big, it is as if the “odds are stacked again you.” You just don’t see any way out; fear leads to despair which leads to hopelessness.
In the midst of what you are facing, no matter how big or how small, we have a God who gives strength to the weary and power to those who are weak. He gives hope to those who find themselves without hope. You might be familiar with these words – “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:29-31).
Throughout Scripture, in times of real doubt, when the odds were stacked against someone or a people group, God asks them, “Is anything too hard for me?” Two examples – to Abraham after Sarah questioned how an old lady could have a son (Genesis 18:14) and to the prophet Jeremiah as Jerusalem and its inhabitants were about to lose everything (Jeremiah 32:27).
So, today, maybe against what seems like insurmountable odds, when you feel as if the odds are 100 to 1, or even 1000 to 1, against you, you can have confidence, you can rest assured, that you have a God who is bigger than the odds, a God who promises to be with you every step of the way, through good and bad, thick and thin, when the odds are in your favor, and when they are stacked against you. He says to you right now… Is anything too hard for me?
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