I Hope to Lose

DAILY BYTE

This week we have learnt that the author of Hebrews 11 reminds us that the ‘heroes of the faith’ who have gone before us were actually very ordinary people with very human flaws, but what set them apart and made them heroic was their willingness and desire to keep on trusting in God even at life’s most difficult and demoralising times.

It seems that they daily lived with the great truth we are reminded of in Romans 8 – the belief that despite any apparent evidence to the contrary, God WILL ALWAYS work for our good because he loves us. This does not mean their prayers were always answered exactly as they asked, or that they never faced disappointments – it just meant they were able to hold onto faith in God DESPITE seemingly unanswered prayers and bitter disappointments.

Anyone can have faith when life is easy and all is going well, but faith really counts when everything is going wrong and we are hanging on by our fingertips. Faith really counts when nothing is easy and we are having to wrestle our way through every day just to make it to the end.

I love how Jacob’s name was changed after an all-night wrestling match with God. His name was changed from Jacob (meaning ‘one who supplants’) to Israel (meaning ‘one who struggles or contends with God’).

And that’s how a people of faith have been defined and known for thousands of years – as those who wrestle or struggle with God!

Ultimately, that is exactly what faith is. Faith begins and ends by knowing who God is, and our rightful place in relation to that, but it is SUSTAINED by courageously, stubbornly and obstinately holding onto a belief in the promises of God despite everything that may be going wrong.

The author, Nikos Kazantzakis, tells a story that came out of his own personal religious quest. He speaks of visiting a saintly monk on a secluded island. He asked the monk, Father Makarios, ‘Do you still wrestle with the devil?’
“Not any longer, my child,” replied the godly man, “I have grown old and he has grown old with me. He does not have the strength. I now wrestle with God.”
“With God!” exclaimed Kazantzakis in astonishment, “and do you hope to win?”
“No,” answered the monk, “I hope to lose.”

Perhaps, above all, that is faith.

PRAYER

Holy God, even during the darkest and most difficult parts of my life, may the Good News of your loving grace be victorious over these struggles. Help me to never let go of you and to always persist in my faith journey. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Romans 8: 26-28

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirits intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.