Win-Win: Never Losing in Christ

¹⁸ I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  Ephesians 1

I want to get right to the point: as a born-again child of God, indwelled and empowered by his Holy Spirit, we are always in a win-win situation. We can’t lose.

I wish I could sit down with each of you, individually, in a quiet setting with no set schedule, and talk personally about this idea of Power in your life – or the complete lack thereof. I would first ask, “What in your life is out there, undetermined, uncontrollable, causing you concern, uncertainty, worry, doubt or fear?”

I would want us to talk about where in your life do you feel powerless? And, let’s not miss discussing where you need energy, creativity and clarity for the challenges, even the positive opportunities, ahead.

As we started to engage, my prayer would be God’s prayer in the Ephesians passage above. What an amazing prayer. Breathtaking in his assurance; no, assurance is not strong enough: breathtaking in his guarantee!

God is saying to you, “I want you to know with complete and unshakable confidence, that with me in charge, and Jesus at your side, and the Holy Spirit powered up inside you, you are always in a win-win position, no matter what you are facing – positive or negative.

I would want to sit down with you individually so we could take each issue, each threat, whatever the opportunity, and examine why you, in your specific situation, are guaranteed a win-win: why you simply cannot lose, no matter which way it goes.

Of course you would need no assistance in seeing the win-lose scenario. We are well practiced at that art. We can quickly analyze how it has to go, for it to go our way, in our timing, for our happiness. And we fixate on all the ways we lose if it doesn’t.                          

But we consistently fail to factor in God’s power, and even more rarely do we factor in the power of the Holy Spirit within us.

God is saying, “ … that you may know the hope to which he has called you … and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” ‘Hope’ in this Biblical context means “Confident expectation,” not wishful thinking. Don’t miss that: Confident expectation.

No matter what, we can always know we are in a win-win, precisely because we can always have the absolute confident expectation that:

God is in perfect control

God is perfectly present with you always

God loves you perfectly

God will always bring, not just the good, but the “immeasurably, abundantly more than anything we could ask for, or even imagine to ask for,”¹ out of every situation.

And then, as we ended our discussion, I would encourage you to thank God now, before you see how He will win for you, because you most certainly will be thanking him later.

“I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.”     Jesus at John 16:33      The Message translation