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We Did Win!
by Carol Balizet
But the next morning our local paper, usually excellent in every way, published an editorial about how we did not win. The rest of the paper was full of pictures of tired, battered, triumphant men celebrating and kissing the Stanley Cup, but the editorial page consoled us for our loss, and told us to take heart; the team had played well and we'd try again next year. It was a case of the left-hand-not-knowing-what-the-right-hand-was-doing. Like many other readers, I called the paper. (I wondered how rare my edition was - would it be a treasure in the future?) The lady I spoke to was overwhelmed; apparently I was not her first caller. She explained that they had two editorials prepared, one for a loss and the other if Tampa won. The wrong text had been printed; and my paper was nowhere near unique. Everybody got the "We lost but we played well" text. The lady on the phone was so undone that I ended up consoling her. I'm old enough to remember: "Dewey Defeats Truman" and even before that: "Japs (sic) Invade California", and those publications survived. I meant well, but I don't think it helped her.
So that editorial mistake added to the buzz for the day, and I wasn't expecting any input from the Lord about it, but He did speak to me. He said quite clearly that He, too, has a "bad press". He told me: "Almost nobody believes that I really won! There are too many forces, too many voices, which deny My victory." I was riveted. Of course! Nobody believes! From the very beginning, from the encounter in the Garden of Eden, Satan trapped our first parents into sin by denying that what God said was true; and they believed him. The question still continues; we're asked in Isaiah 53: "Whose report are you going to believe?"
It's all through Scripture: ten men out of the twelve spies sent out by Moses to study the land believed what they saw more than what God had said, and the nation of Israel roamed the wilderness for forty years because of their unbelief. Gideon started our with 32,000 men; he could only really use 300 of them. On and on; the pattern has continued. Almost all of God's children today are the same. He says all kinds of incredible things: He speaks of peace, provision, power, forgiveness, healing, triumph, fruit, victory - all ours because of His victory. How many of us have persevered into possessing them? Oh, we mostly know what He says, what His promises cover, but how much do we believe? How many of us can skate around the ice in glory, to the sounds of thundering applause, kissing the Stanley Cup and crying without shame? On the other hand, how many of us "play well but lose"?
We're not unique today. Even those who knew Jesus in the flesh, those who had witnessed His triumph over death (with Jarias' daughter, with Lazarus, others), those who had heard this Man say, "I shall be killed and on the third day I shall rise again" - even they didn't believe that He had "won"! That statement He made about His death and resurrection is repeated 11 times in the Gospels, and nobody believed it! Not Mary, not Peter, certainly not Thomas, who had to touch the scars! They all thought He had lost! The only ones who seemed to give His words any credence at all were His enemies who set a watch to prevent any attempt to fake a resurrection.
So what's the parallel here? What is it that says to us, today, about our lives: "He didn't win"? Where do we find the false, evil report? Where do we read the wrong editorial? What voice tells us: "He played well, but the other team simply out-played Him. Remember, there's always next year!" I think probably there are a hundred different "wrong editorials" which some inner force may "print out" and "deliver" to our "front yard". Let me share a few that occur to me.
The biggest factor that stands as an editorial to proclaim "He Lost!" is the circumstances we face that seem to say: "It isn't working!" We pray and nothing happens. Voices from the enemy - and many of our friends - clamor: "You're not healed!" "The money hasn't come in!" "Nothing you've prayed for has happened!" "Don't be a fool!" "You're not using wisdom!" "You must be balanced". And we don't wait to see what all the Lord has on His agenda, what else He's doing as we are matured and perfected during the waiting period. This wonderful God of ours will do anything for us - except hurry! Sometimes He wants to see how we react to unanswered prayer - and He wants us to see our reaction, as well.
Because often fear comes (always forbidden by God, except "the fear of the Lord") and we take the initiative from Him. There's also lack of faith, not uncommon; and there's lack of patience, which is really not uncommon. There's also asking amiss; there's being out of the flow of God's blessings and favor because of sin; there's presumption. There are lots of cases where the Lord has a different agenda, or He sees seeds of destruction in the thing we want so badly. There are literally hundreds of reasons why we don't get an immediate answer to our prayers, and not one of them means He failed! He does not - He cannot - fail to love, to hear, to respond with what is best - whether or not that is what we asked for. None of this is evidence that He "lost"!!!
However, almost every force out there tells us that He lost. The world systems all scream at us that despite His perfect life and death, despite His defeat of Satan's forces of darkness, despite His glorious assention, we still need them! Our unregenerate souls agree with them - some of us are as dependant on the world as the lost are! We line up for their information, their ministry, their help, their loans, their drugs, their counseling, their so-called truth. And if we get enough of what they offer it seems we never need God. When we Christians prefer the world systems to the Lord, it seems like He lost.
So that's my take on the Lord's victory over the enemy. It's total, irreversible, available. The route to victory for us is truly believing that there was victory for Him. It doesn't matter what voice comes against that fact; it's wrong! He won! It is impossible for Him to be defeated. And He said to us, "Behold! I give unto you power over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you!" He did it all! The only thing we have to do is believe Him, and live our lives as though he told the truth!
So now we can skate around the arena and rejoice in victory. We can lift high and not drink from the Cup, because He, Jesus, already drank it. And I don't mean the Stanley Cup - I mean the cup Jesus asked His Father to let pass from Him when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, the cup of unimaginable torment, crucifixion, and then three days in the realm of death... that Cup! - which He did drink so that we shall never have to... that Cup! So no matter what any source says, He did not lose the finals! He won! And because He won, so can we.
Why wait till next year?
Here's that list again, not complete by a long shot, but in my experience the main sources of the bad report, that totally wrong editorial, that says He lost.
- Circumstances
- Fear
- Lack of Faith
- Lack of Patience
- Asking Amiss
- Sin
- Presumption.
- Preferring the World Systems
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