God of the Underdogs

I heard something at church that really spoke to me yesterday. Since a lot of us are dealing with school and work, this might be a little encouragement since things are starting to getting hard.
 
The sermon was called God of the Underdogs and it was based on the verses from 1 Samuel 16 (It was also from the book God of the Underdogs by Matt Keller) . Where the Lord is sending Samuel to anoint a new king of Israel after the death of Saul. I won't preach the whole sermon to you because you already know the story: God chooses little 'ole David, the runt of the family. The UNDERDOG (<----you see how clever all these hip preachers can be naming their sermons these days).

Anywho, it wasn't necessarily the story that spoke to me. It was a something the pastor said in passing. He referred to the verse Hebrew 11:6 "And without faith, it is impossible to please God." How many times have you heard that verse? I know I've heard it at least 100,000,00+ times. But the Bible says if we don't have faith it is ABSOLUTELY impossible to please God.

So here I am, freaking out because I'm in big kid school and its pretty much sucks right now. I love my major, I love my school, I love my teachers, but I had no idea how hard it would be trying to handle all this stress. If you know me, you know I always have things planned out. I always want to know the outcome of a situation before I start. So as I have been encountering all these new things, I have been telling myself:

1. You can do this. It's too hard.
2. You're not smart enough for this major. CAREER CHANGE ASAP!
3. You've totally missed God's call on your life and you've gotten yourself into a mess. A big stinky doo-doo mess (the worst kind).

NEWS FLASH: None of these things are true. They are lies of the enemy. I might be an Underdog, but I have the hand of the Lord on my side.

Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."

Think about this when life gets hard this week and you feel like a underdog:

If God made things simple, there would be no need for faith. And without faith it is impossible to please God. So if you're living a life that doesn't require a total surrender to God's plan, you're not living a life that is pleasing to God.

Whoa. Mind explosion.

Embrace the fear and stress this week. Your God is the God of the Underdogs.