The Comfort of Knowing Who’s Going to Win

With football season well underway, I can’t resist commenting on a trait many of us fans share. Even if we feel confident our team will win, don’t we feel uneasy as the game unfolds? That’s part of the fun, but also part of the frustration, watching anxiously and hoping for the desired outcome.

 

Have you ever had an occasion when your favorite team was playing a crucial game, but you couldn’t watch it on TV live? Maybe you’d been invited to a wedding and couldn’t think of a single valid excuse for not attending? (Who plans weddings that conflict with important games, right?) 

 

Maybe some old friends stopped by unexpectedly for a visit, and you realized how rude it would be to ignore them and watch the game? Or maybe you had to work while the game was on – there was no getting out of it. So, what did you do? If possible, you probably recorded the game for watching later.

When your obligation was fulfilled, you could hardly wait to get to the TV and watch the game from the start. But first, you couldn’t resist taking a peek at the final score to make sure your team came out on top. Comforted by knowing that victory was already in hand, you found your anxiety level considerably reduced, or even non-existent. Correct? After all, you already knew who was going to win.

 

Recently, I read about one avid fan who was required to attend a work meeting while his favorite team was playing against its archrival. Later he invited a friend at the meeting to watch the recording of the game with him, but he didn’t exhibit his usual crazed, fanatical self.

 

After a while, the friend asked why he wasn’t ranting and ranting at the game’s expected ups and downs. His response? “While we were in the meeting, one of the guys got a text about the game. My team stages a comeback in the fourth quarter to win. So why worry if I know we’re going to win?”

 

There’s an important spiritual parallel to this. Sometimes we look at the world around us and find ourselves fretting. ‘God, are you paying attention? Things are really messy here. Can’t you do something?’

 

In reality, the Lord already has done “something.” The most important something of all: “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). For all who have trusted in Jesus Christ and have been born again into God’s family, our sin problem has been remedied, once and for all, and our eternal future is secure.

 

Okay, but what about the course our society and the world are taking? It often seems God has been excluded totally from the equation. Isn’t that a good reason for fretting, maybe even gnashing our teeth? Just weeks from now an important election is coming up. What if the candidates we think should win don’t? Or looking at things on a more personal level, perhaps we’re facing some overwhelming challenges – health, relationships, finances, career. Aren’t those things worth worrying about?

 

We could easily justify our anxieties. But that’s where faith comes in. Not a blind, hope-so kind of faith but one that is unwavering, anchored in who God is and what He says. This is when knowing who’s ultimately going to win is so important. 

 

As the apostle Paul could boldly write to his protégé, Timothy, “…I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day [when he will stand victoriously before Christ in heaven]” (2 Timothy 1:12).

 

More than we can ever imagine, Paul endured hardships and suffering in many forms, yet because he could look forward with earnest expectation and confident assurance in the Lord’s promises, he didn’t fall victim to despair and hopelessness.

 

Jesus addressed this with His troubled, confused disciples near the end of His earthly ministry as they pondered His imminent departure: “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). He was saying in effect, ‘Don’t be overwhelmed by worries and concern. The outcome of the game is already settled – and we win!’

 

The Scriptures offer similar assurances in many places, both the Old and New Testaments. But there’s none better than what Jesus declares in the final chapter of the last book in the Bible: “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 21:12-13).

Like watching a football game when it seems the momentum has shifted to the opposing team, it makes all the difference in the world if we know beyond the shadow of a doubt who will emerge victorious!