Watching the Game Backward: A Lesson in Faith

by Rex Rouis

How would you watch a game if you knew beforehand that your team had already won? Imagine missing an important sports event and recording it to watch later. Before you press play, you inadvertently learn that your team has won. How would this knowledge affect you watching the game?

If your team plays poorly in the first half, would you feel nervous? No, instead, you’d watch with anticipation, knowing a turnaround is on the way. Each setback would only heighten your excitement – what will happen to give your team the victory?! This confidence comes because your team has already won. The only remaining unknown is how it will happen. The moment you learned that your team had won, winning stopped being a possibility (a hope) and became a known fact, which is the basis of faith. How silly would it be to watch a rerun of a game where you already knew your team had won and still worry about whether they would win? That’s actually a little creepy.

Your perspective has changed because you’re watching the game backward, from the certainty of the outcome. The same principle applies to faith. Faith is living with the assurance that, no matter how difficult things appear, victory has already been determined.

The Power of Trust in the Source

Your confidence in the game’s outcome only depends on how much you trust the source of the information. For example, if you heard the news from a reliable TV broadcast, you’d have no reason to doubt it. But if you heard it from a stranger, you might not be as confident. In other words, what happens in the game doesn’t matter. The only important thing in this whole process is whether the source is reliable.

Faith works the same way. It all depends on trusting God’s Word. When we hear from God, we can be sure of what’s going to happen, even if things look impossible. Faith isn’t about ignoring problems or pretending everything is fine; it’s about trusting Him as a reliable source.  As Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the (spoken) Word of Christ.” He is far more reliable than a TV broadcast.

Faith as Pre-Knowledge

Faith is determined by what we know before the event – the game. If we know no more than anybody else before the game, then we will be the same as everybody else during the game. True faith knows beforehand what will happen. Faith is a pre-knowledge of the coming victory, and this knowledge produces peace. We may know the coming victory in detail, or we may know it simply by the peace in our hearts. Either way, it communicates a knowledge of victory, and by it, we have faith.

Faith Comes By Hearing

This just doesn’t come, we have to seek God for it. Consider Paul in Acts 27. During a violent storm at sea, he sought God and was assured by an angel that, though the ship would be lost, everyone on board would survive. With this assurance, Paul declared to all the other passengers, “I believe God that it will turn out exactly as I have been told” (Acts 27:25). His faith rested on what he heard from God, and it gave him peace in the midst of imminent disaster. He knew beforehand that he would win.

This knowledge of victory that gives us faith is based on a ‘knowing’ Word from God. Faith is God’s Word becoming alive to us in a real and personal way concerning an actual and specific situation or thing. Faith is the result of God speaking the outcome to our hearts. And when we hear the outcome, we know the outcome. It is when we stand on this knowing that we are standing on His Word in faith. This Word we heard is now a knowing we must receive and act upon.

Hold On To That Reliable Information

The stronger the trust in the ‘hearing,’ the less impact the so-called ‘facts’ of the game will have on us. Once we know the outcome, we own the outcome. Then, we are expected to protect and retain the ownership of that ‘knowing’ till the end through patience.

The writer of Hebrews says that ‘by faith and patience (we shall) inherit (or receive) the promises (the collective ‘hopes’ of God’s Word).’ In the story above, Paul had to walk in obedience to receive all God had spoken to him.

If we knew of God’s will in every area of our life, we would have peace in every area of our life. Let us first labor to hear from God, and then we can watch the game of life with peace. The things received from God in private determine the victories accomplished later in public. We are told ‘not to lean to our own understanding.’ Instead, our ears are only to be on what He says. Nothing else matters.

But life Is Not Merely Watching a Game

When we hear the outcome, we know the outcome.

Granted, in real life, it may not seem as simple as this. In life, we are not merely watching a game but we are in the game. We are the ones going back and forth, sweating, straining, and getting hit. Our loved ones are also playing, and they are getting hit. Some may even be playing for the other team, and that hurts.

Moreover, our principal opponent (the devil) is a talented coach who doesn’t play fair. He is a great deceiver and knows how to use our weaknesses against us. Nevertheless, the principles are still the same – with God, we can win. The Bible tells us that ‘we are more than conquerors through Him who strengthens us.’ To win, we must practice until we can play the game of life with love, faith, and peace.

The Bible tells us that we win, and that is all there is to it. Now, let’s go out and throw a victory party and give Jesus the MVP award.