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The question of the day:

How can you ever lose when God is on your side?

It always seems as if the battle is mine to lose, as if amidst the millions of tiny little distractions in life, one of them is going to be the one that is going to tear me down and dump me in the ditches.

I always want Him to do something before I can do something... I want Him to show me evidence of His power before I can act and unreservedly give up my time in His service. It always amazes me in the Old Testament when the people always ask God to do something for them, then they add on "then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever..." (Psalm 79:13), or some other conditional thing they will do for God because He's helped them. I always thought there was something wrong about this picture, but I realize for me the question is moot. God's already shown and done more for me than He did for the Israelites in the Old Testament. I am a child of Abraham, a child of the new covenant. Now is a time for response, not a time for excuses.

"When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, 'Enough! Withdraw your hand.'"
- 2 Samuel 24:16a

God stops the calamities in our lives purely out of His mercy and grace. But it was funny reading this, because I never realized the importance of what happened here. God didn't just stay "Stop killing Israel because they're suffering," He allowed His work to happen through David - who offered a burnt offering to the Lord at Araunah's threshing floor. And after the offering was lifted up, the plague ended.

Stop questioning God, and let Him work through you. What better way to serve Him than to be used the way He wants to use you?

What have I gained on my own but loss and suffering anyway?

"Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing - if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?"
- Galatians 3:4-5

Rhetorical questions.