The Losing Winner

I was reading about the children of Israel wandering in the desert for a long period of time and can't help but felt sorry for them. Then when we come to Numbers 13, excitement built because finally, they are coming close. But, the result was disappointing because they were so close, yet so far. This led me into thinking about failed opportunities.. As a believers and followers of the living God who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, we are considered a winner because our God is great. Yet our behavior is far from being a winner.

We can find three examples in the Bible where we read about the failure to go in and be with God, the winning side. We can call it the three attitudes of losers.

1. Failure to accept God's promise.

Even with God on their side, the children of Israel let their fear and lack of faith prevent them from entering into the promised land. They would be winners by claiming the prize. As a result they wandered and suffered even more by staying out in the desert when they can be drinking fresh water and eating the fresh fruits and rest their weary souls.

How many of us can identify with this situation? I am not talking just about non-Christians. It is quite clear that non-Christian is an opponent of God and hence clearly not on the winning side. But what about you, Christians? God has many, many promises for Christians to live a victorious life and yet many of us are like the children of Israel. Full of fear and uncertainties. A weak perception and understanding of the promises left us outside on the losing side. Incapable of grabbing the promises fully, we remain outside wandering eating dry stale bread and drink dirty water.

Bill Bright has a good suggestion on claiming God’s promises. That is to use the word of God as a prayer. We can either pray God’s word directly or use it as a springboard for prayer. Because in Isaiah 55:11, it says so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

2. Failure to live above the level of our belief

The next story that came to mind is the parable as told by Jesus on the prodigal sons in Luke 15. All of us are familiar with the story. In the beginning, the father has two sons living with him but one decided to take his inheritance and left the house. In no time, he was living worst than his father's hired servants at home. Thank goodness, he came to his senses and decided to return home. He couldn't even make a full confession of his stupidity in sinning against his father and heaven. His father was already standing on the outside eager to bring him in to celebrate. Meanwhile, we have another son, the elder brother who is on the outside refused to enter inside. Not only did he fail to understand the goodness and grace of his father, he is unforgiving, jealous, angry, frustrated and feeling unappreciated. Again, how many of us as Christians, behave like the elder son, feeling insignificant and ended on the outside, on the losing side.

During the initial years of electricity distribution Thomas Edison's direct current was the standard for the United States. Direct current is fine if you are supplying electricity within 1 mile area. But due to resistance, the electric power is lost during transmission. When another inventor Nicola Tesla invented the Alternate current which allowed transmission of electricity to hundred of miles with little loss of power, the world took notice but not Edison. Nikola Tesla was actually a staff of Edison. The two of them have to be parted company and Tesla went and join force with Westinghouse. In fact the rivalry is so bad that Edison publicly executed animals just to show the world that AC is dangerous. The greatest inventor could have been a great winner but he ended losing to the Westinghouse who won the right to provide electricity to the Chicago trade fair. Since then, Alternating current was chosen as the North American standard because it presented fewer risks and promised higher reliability than competing DC systems of the day. Many of DC's deficiencies were later corrected, but not until a substantial North American infrastructure had already been developed.

This is what happen when we fail to live out our belief. We know but we refused to accept or live out our belief. As a result, we are the loser. God promised us power and victory over sin and our old nature. Many times, we failed to live up to the level of our belief and no wonder we behave like a bunch of losers. Instead of further God's kingdom, we tainted His name, we bicker over insignificant matters and we spent wasteful time and resources over mundane issues such as worship style, music selection and preaching standards. Instead of motivate and elevate each other, we tear each other down and gossip or destroy one another's faith. Instead of saving lost souls or fighting injustice, we are caught sulking and idling. This is the story of Christianity, we are a losing winner.

3. Failure to set our eyes on the goal set by God

We can only be winner if we want to win. To win means we must set our eyes on the goal. Paul urged us not to run without a goal but to aim towards the finishing line. This bring us to another parable told by Jesus. This is the parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. There are 5 wise virgins and 5 foolish virgins. The wise virgins prepared and took the journey seriously. They left with conviction and they understand what lies ahead. They are going to see their groom. On the other hand, the foolish bride left carelessly, ill prepared and having to go back to the beginning to start look for more oil but time ran out and they lost. They missed the groom completely. We are loser if we do not prepare our journey and we took for granted that one day we will meet God and face judgment. We cannot afford to be ill prepared and be ignorant of our goal. We want to be with God in that celebration. If we don't, we are the losing winner.

This is why Paul tell young Timothy he must study to make himself acceptable, rightly understand and handle the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 says “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” There is no excuse for us a follower but do not know our handbook well. You know all of us carry a hand phone now and most hand phone have a calendar feature which is for us to record things to do or event. Why don’t we key in a verse a day so we can memorize it. Many phone today has music recording purposes. Why not download some messages which is available free on the internet. Listen to it when you are driving, jogging. It is free and it is effective.

As believers, our claim to be winner with God is real only when we claim His promises, live out our beliefs and prepared well for the journey set to us by God.