Before the session

Read this through. Come with one promise you still hold, and a clear-eyed account of the odds now against it. We will bring them both into the same room.

An old man takes a hill

Caleb is eighty-five years old and asking for a mountain.

In Joshua 14, forty-five years after Moses promised him the hill country of Hebron, Caleb stands in front of Joshua and says:

"So now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said." (Joshua 14:10-12)

Read that again. Great fortified cities. The Anakim — the giants whose mere presence forty years earlier had convinced ten of the twelve spies that the promised land could not be taken.

And Caleb, at eighty-five, is asking for them.

Not the easy land. Not the suburbs. The hill country with the giants.

The look of faith past age

Abraham is also old. A hundred years old. His wife Sarah is ninety. They have been holding the promise of a son for decades. In Romans 4, Paul gives us this line about Abraham:

"He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised." (Romans 4:19-21)

Look at the phrase: when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead. This is not denial. Abraham is not pretending the odds are in his favour. He is looking honestly at the odds — his body was as good as dead — and still trusting the word.

This is faith past logic. Not faith without logic. Not faith against logic. Faith that has looked at the logic, acknowledged it, and still chosen to trust God's word above it.

Abraham is a hundred years old and trusting for a son. Caleb is eighty-five and asking for giants. These are the odds-defiers of the Bible. Both of them have been holding a word from God for decades.

The odds in your life

You are probably somewhere between Joseph's prison and Caleb's hill. Which means you have a promise that now looks unreasonable.

You have waited too long for the promise to still be plausible.
You are too old for the thing you felt called to.
You have too much against you for the word to still make sense.
The circumstances have hardened beyond what you can see God moving.

This is normal. This is where most long promises end up. The question is not whether the odds are against the word. The question is whether the odds are God's concern or yours.

What Abraham actually did

Paul says Abraham grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. That phrasing is worth sitting with.

Abraham did not grit his teeth. He did not positive-think the son into existence. He did not manifest. He gave glory to God.

Giving glory to God in the face of impossible odds is a specific practice. It looks like:

Talking to God about what He can do, not about what you cannot.
Declaring who He is, not rehearsing the problem.
Remembering what He has done before, and saying it out loud.
Refusing to let the conversation about His promise become mostly a conversation about the obstacles.

When you give glory to God, your faith grows. Not because of positive thinking. Because you are turning your attention toward the One whose character is the actual foundation of the word.

Paul puts it in three moves at the end of the passage: fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised.

Able — capacity.
To do — action.
What He had promised — specificity.

Three things to hold. God has the capacity. God acts. And what He said, He will do.

Caleb's phrase

Go back to Caleb. Read that last line of his speech again, slowly:

"It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said." (Joshua 14:12)

It may be.

This is not a man who is cocky. This is a man who is honest. He does not know, exactly, how this will work. He just knows that the word was spoken forty-five years ago, and he has been waiting, and he is still as strong as he was then, and he wants the hill with the giants.

The phrase "it may be" is one of the holiest phrases in the Bible. It is faith without arrogance. It is hope without presumption. It is the posture of a believer who does not presume on God and does not give up on Him either.

It may be that the Lord will be with me. And if He is, the giants come down.

This is the posture of the long-promise carrier.

What the odds actually are

Here is the honest theological note.

The odds are real. Abraham's body was as good as dead. The giants at Hebron were genuinely large. Sarah was genuinely barren. The circumstances are not imaginary obstacles that faith can wish away.

And yet.

The odds are not the final word. God is the final word. And He does what He promised, even when the odds have stacked against it for decades.

This is why the weight of the promise does not rest on your strength. You are not expected to believe the odds away. You are expected to hold the word, give glory to God, and let Him do what He said He would do.

Hebrews 11:11 has a line that carries this well: "By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered Him faithful who had promised."

Sarah did not consider her age. Or rather, Sarah considered her age, and then considered Him faithful who had promised. Both things are there. The honest assessment of the odds, and the deeper assessment of His character.

What this week is about

Somewhere in your hand is a word that now looks unreasonable. You are older. More tired. The window you thought the word would come through has closed. The circumstances have hardened.

This week you are going to practice Caleb's it may be.

Not I refuse to acknowledge the odds. Not the odds don't bother me. But the odds are real, and He is more real, and I am still asking for the hill with the giants.

The practice for this week

Two moves.

Write down the odds. Name them honestly. "I am forty-three, I have no partner, the promise was marriage and children." "I have been unemployed for eighteen months. The promise was fruitful work." "The relationship has been broken for a decade. The promise was restoration."
Write down the word louder than the odds. Under the odds, write the word. "And He said _____. He is able to do what He promised. It may be that He will be with me, and I shall see it just as He said."

Read both aloud every day this week. Odds. Word. Declaration.

Before you come to the session

Come with the odds named honestly.
Come with the word louder than the odds.
Come willing to ask, in front of the group, for the hill with the giants.

When the Odds Don't Matter