More Than Conquerors

One man of you puts to flight a thousand. Joshua 23:10

D.L. MOODY
When in Glasgow, a friend was telling me about a man who was preaching one Sabbath morning on Shamgar. He said: “I can imagine that when he was ploughing in the field, a man came running over the hill all out of breath and shouted: ‘Shamgar! Shamgar! There are six hundred Philistines coming toward you.’ Shamgar quietly said: ‘You pass on; I can take care of them, they are four hundred short.’ So he took an ox goad and slew the whole of them. He routed them hip and thigh.” “One shall chase a thousand.” Nowadays it takes about a thousand to chase one, because we do not realize that we are weak in ourselves and that our strength is in God.

ERWIN LUTZER
Scripture reveals only this much of Shamgar, “After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel” (Judges 3:31). In the time of the Judges, God gave His rebellious people Spirit-filled leadership to lead them out of their woes. All the odds were against Shamgar, but his strength was in God.
Sometimes faith changes our circumstances. God can intervene to deliver us as Shamgar experienced. But sometimes faith doesn’t change our circumstances. As Hebrews 11:37–38 says of the some of the heroes of the faith, “[Some were] destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom  the world was not worthy.” God, in His good purposes, doesn’t deliver everyone from their enemies. But both groups—those who are delivered and those who die as martyrs—are all heroes of faith.
Faith is the ability to accept whatever God gives us. In fact, faith always leads to ultimate victory. We must keep believing, trusting, and accepting, whatever the outcome will be.

PRAYER
Father, help me to remember that my faith is perfected in weakness. Let me never judge you by the size of my circumstance, but to judge my circumstance against your vast power.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS
How does your perspective on "victory" change if faith is defined as the ability to accept whatever God gives us rather than just getting what we want?

What specific circumstance in your life right now requires you to keep trusting and accepting God's will, even if the outcome remains uncertain or difficult?