Odds get our attention. We often rely on odds to help make decisions. We like to size up a situation before we make a decision. In a mathematical sense, odds are the expression of the probability of an event happening or what will be the likely outcome of an event. (I’m having flashbacks of a statistics class I had to take.. ugh). When we look at the odds in our personal situations we collect and analyze information about our strength, our power, our resources… looking to see what advantages exist for us… what are the odds against us… In other words, are the odds in our favor?
The odds are what the ten spies considered when they made the decision not to move forward in their conquest of the land promised to them. Information was collected – giants in the land. Information was analyzed-we can’t conquer them. Decisions were made and the wilderness wandering began.
And Gideon’s focus on the odds is why an angel of the Lord finds him threshing wheat in a winepress in secret, hiding his substance for fear of the Midianites who had come in great numbers against the children of Israel. The angel informs Gideon that he is the one the Lord is sending to defeat the Midianites. Gideon begins to consider the odds, collecting and analyzing information – “My family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” He was defining and confining himself by what he considered his deficits. And then… “The Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shall smite the Midianites as one man.”
When the Lord is with us, His strength, His power, and His resources are with us. And so we see in Gideon’s defeat of the Midianites with only 300 men! Talk about some odds! There was no doubt that God was with Gideon.
What if when we are faced with odds, instead of focusing on what we consider deficiencies, we look at the sufficiencies of our Father? Odds are not meant to define and confine us. It’s in the midst of the odds that we discover more about our Father. “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth (Psalm 46:10.) God is exalted in our personal lives because of the odds. He will be exalted, not maybe but will be exalted. This tells me that the odds are in my favor because God is exalted in the odds! There will be no doubt that God was in our situation. Odds are in our favor because that is how God is exalted and glorified in our lives.. for all to see.
Against all odds, when it looked hopeless, Abraham believed the promise and expected God to fulfill it. He took God at His word, and as a result he became the father of many nations. God’s declaration over him came to pass: “Your descendants will be so many that they will be impossible to count!” (Romans 4:18)
Do today’s situations have us looking at the odds? Are we allowing our own strengths and resources to define and confine us?
My prayer for you my “ friend “ is the same prayer Elisha prayed for his servant, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” … Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. ( 2 Kings 6:17)
He saw the strength, the power, and the resources of God. Against all odds, God will be exalted…
The odds are in our favor… Let’s open our eyes. Blessings – Lisa
Rays of Sunshine inc 