Well…. the new year is finally here, and many of us have taken steps to create this year’s version of our New Year’s Resolutions. As most of you probably know, our resolutions will be faded memories by March. Statistics show that while 45% of us make resolutions for the new year, only about 8% of us will actually succeed in keeping their resolution. We hit opposition to our goal, and statistically, most of us will give up and never realize a goal that would have improved our lives.
The same is true for our lives in general sometimes. We have hopes and dreams. We have God-given promises for our future. Yet quite a few of us have just given up completely. I would say that at one time or another, all of us have given up on a dream. If you’ve been out of high school for more than 10 years, ask yourself: Is this where you thought you would be at this stage of your life? Is this the life you imagined you would have by this time? Very few of us are able to realize the life we imagined ourselves living. We live lives of struggle to achieve our goals. Even those dreams that are inspired by God seem difficult to accomplish. It leaves us questioning whether we even heard God correctly. Is this really what he wants me to do?
I want you to understand that God rarely helps us in what we can do ourselves. It is in those times of difficulty that he really shows himself. In fact, God often makes it more difficult than is necessary just to prove to us that he is God and can accomplish not only the difficult, but the impossible. Consider a couple of examples:
In Judges 6, we begin the story of Gideon. The Israelites had once again reverted to pagan worship and God once again allowed a foreign country to invade in order to punish them and lead them back to himself. God appears to a man named Gideon and tells him that he wants Gideon to lead an army in rebellion against the invaders. In Judges 6 we read that the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern people had invaded the land and were “like locusts”. In verse 5 it says that they were impossible to count because their number was so great. Chapter 8 (8:10) gives us a number of 135,000 people in the opposing army. Gideon is leading an army of 32,000. When we get to chapter 7, God begins to make things interesting. Let’s recap. God has told Gideon that he wants him to lead an army against an invading army that outnumbers him considerably. Gideon’s army is not made up of professional soldiers. The enemy’s army is. Gideon already has a reason for pause. The odds are against him. It’s going to be a miracle if Gideon is able to win a battle with such odds, but he has a word from God so he prepares to move forward. Then God says something that Gideon wasn’t expecting. God says in Chapter 7 verse 2 “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands”. What? I’m already outnumbered by at least 4 to 1 and I have too many? Yes. God says that you may think that you did this all on your own if you fight a battle with this many men. I can imagine Gideon saying “No. Really God. We’ll know it was you if we win.” But God whittles Gideon’s army down to 300 men. Impossible odds. God took an already impossible situation and just made it worse.
In the book of 1 Kings, we read a similar tale. Elijah is a prophet in Israel. Ahab is the king and has not been a very good one. In fact, in Chapter 16 we read that Ahab did more evil than any of those before him. God is not pleased, and as punishment, Elijah tells the king that it will not only not rain for 3 years, there won’t even be any dew! Now that’s a drought! In a society that relied heavily on agriculture to survive, it was a death sentence. Three years later, Elijah returns to Ahab and proposes a showdown. We’ll pit the prophets of Baal against the one prophet of God. 450 to one. Not good odds to begin with. The test? The first one to call down fire from heaven to burn a sacrifice wins. Not only does fire have to come down from the sky, it has to hit this altar. Those of you familiar with the story know that the prophets of Baal built an altar, killed a bull and placed it on the altar. Then they prayed for about 6 hours, with Elijah trash-talking the whole time. That must have been quite a scene. That evening, Elijah told Baal’s followers that they had had their turn. He would give it a shot now. After rebuilding the altar and placing the bull on it, Elijah does something astonishing. He tells some of the people to fill four large jars with water and pour it on the altar. Three times he has them pour the jars of water over the altar, wood and sacrifice. Have you ever tried to light wet wood? There was so much water that it overflowed the altar and filled the trench around the altar that was dug to contain the blood of the sacrifice. Now Elijah is ready.
How many of us are in similar situations? We know that God has something great planned for us. We heard him speak. We can sense his call tangibly. And yet, seemingly impossible odds just got worse. We have had water poured on our altar. Our army has been decimated to 300 men. The cool thing about each of these stories is that God came through. Gideon didn’t just win a marginal victory over his enemy. They were decimated. Completely destroyed. Fire didn’t come down from the sky 3 or 4 times to light wet wood. Fire came down and even burned the water! The Bible says that it licked up the water in the trench. Water burned!
Are you in a position to allow God to work things out for you, or are you still trying to work it out for him? While I believe that God puts us in positions to do things, I also know that there are times when we face impossible odds. Times when we give up. Times when we lose faith because of impossible circumstances. Impossible situations get worse. Wet wood. An army of leftovers. No hope. I believe that those are the times when God really works though. Too often we think that we have to be on top in order to be used by God. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things…” In other words, if you are on top, you actually have less of a chance to be used by God statistically. Consider the people God used. Gideon said that his clan was the weakest in Manasseh, and he was the least in his family (Judges 6:15). David was the youngest child, and a shepherd. Daniel and Joseph were both foreigners, slaves and prisoners. Paul said that he was the least of the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:9) who were all a bunch of fishermen. In fact, none of the apostles was an influential leader. Moses, Joshua, Noah, Esther, Abraham… The list could go on. All of them faced impossible odds of becoming anything in life. They were nobodies. God doesn’t choose the best and brightest. In fact, he sometimes makes an impossible situation worse just to prove a point.
So where are you? You may be called to ministry and working in a fast food joint. Now, you’ve been moved to second shift too! It was impossible to be involved in ministry with your schedule before, now it’s gotten worse! You may be facing a financial debt that seems insurmountable. Now you find that you owe more in taxes than you thought. An impossible situation just got worse. Your wood got wet. It is in these times that God shines. He doesn’t say that in our strength he becomes stronger. He told Paul that his power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Your time of weakness may be just the time that God comes through. Be resolute in your resolutions. Don’t give up because a situation looks impossible. God not only specializes in impossibilities, he sometimes creates them.