My husband and I are NFL fans and most Sundays we have football on the TV no matter what teams are playing.  Because we live near Nashville we see the Tennessee Titans games locally. My 100-year-old grandmother, who lives with us, is also a football fan and more specifically she is a Titans fan. Yesterday she was watching the game from her room and about midway through the 2nd quarter she came out and announced “well, the Titans have lost.” I told her the game was only in the first half and even though they were behind there was still plenty of time for them to win the game. After all, in the NFL things can change very quickly and you can’t assume a team has lost until every last second has ticked off the clock. But my grandmother’s mind was made up. She had already given up on the Titans and she had written them off before the game was even half over.

As Christians we many times face the same scenario. By all accounts it’s game over. We check the scoreboard of our life and we decide there’s no way we can come back from our current situation. We give up hope as we determine that there is no possible scenario for us to stage a comeback from our dire circumstances – the marriage is over, we’re never going to get out of debt, we’ll never be happy or find Mr. Right, finding a good job is a lost cause, the family drama will never end, our spouse will never change, overcoming this disease just isn’t a reality. We walk out and give up and add our situation into the “loss” column. Yet many times we are just an instant away from a game-changing moment. If only we’d just hung in there just a little bit longer……..

I’ve done it myself and I’ve witnessed it in the life of others. We decide early on that there is no way that whatever we are facing can end up being a “win” in our lives. So we just give up. We lose hope. We don’t have enough faith to believe that things can turn around. We can’t imagine any possible way. We proclaim that it’s going to take a miracle but then determine that miracles don’t happen to people like us. We can’t do anything to change the outcome, it is what it is. We underestimate God. And so that’s it.

In 1996 my husband and I walked out of 2 Jacksonville Jaguar football games thinking the game was over only to hear the stadium erupt as we left and we had to listen to the Jaguars stage an incredible comeback from our car radio. It didn’t take us long to figure out that we were never going to leave a Jaguars game again before the final second had clicked off the scoreboard. The Jaguars went on to have one stunning game after another and as fans it was thrilling to be a part of. No matter what the scoreboard said and how bleak the situation looked we believed they were going to win because we’d seen them do it and we had the faith that they we able to overcome even the most dire situations.

Our lives and the lives of many people we know have paralleled the Jaguars 1996 miracle season. I have experienced and I have seen it firsthand in the lives of others great comebacks when by all accounts there wasn’t a chance. My own marriage made a miraculous comeback when it seemed like there was no hope left. I’ve seen friends overcome impossible obstacles. I’ve known people who have come out on the winning side when the odds were highly stacked against them. I also know those who are right now in the middle of a losing battle. They feel like giving up. They know it looks like it’s game over. But like those of us who have lived through an unbelievable comeback, they are putting their trust in God to stage the comeback of all comebacks. They know that they cannot win without Him. They know the odds are not in their favor. But they know never to underestimate God and to never, ever walk out until the last second has clicked off the time clock.

How much time is left on your clock. Have you already called the game when there’s still plenty of time left. Are you heading out the door because you’ve decided the game’s over? There’s still time left. Don’t take the chance that you may miss the very moment when the momentum shifts in your favor. You may be giving up just before the breakthrough. Praying to God right now and telling Him that you can’t see any way your situation can change but that you know that He is more than able to turn your loss into a win, may just be the game-changer you’ve been waiting for. Don’t miss that moment when the heavens erupt into a chorus of cheers because you hung in there and made the decision that you’re not giving up until you have a victory. It can happen. You’re moment is coming. Don’t find yourself on the outside when it comes. Take a seat and ride it out. Your comeback is playing out right now – and trust me, you don’t want to miss one second of it.