Have you ever played a game of cards with a group of friends and you couldn’t wait to lay down your cards because you just knew that you had an incredible hand? In fact, you knew that you had probably had an unbeatable hand, and so you smiled to yourself the whole time the hand was played, and it was all you could do to not let that smile creep onto your face.
And then, as the cards were finally being played, at the last minute, one of the other people at the table played a card you weren’t expecting. They played the one card you’d forgotten about, the card that had slipped your mind in all your excitement about the cards you’d been holding, the only card that could possibly take down your unbeatable hand. The trump card.
In cards, the trump card is the one you want to hold, but you never want your opponents to hold. Even the lowest card in the deck can beat a high card if it’s a trump card, and many of us experience the downside of the trump card everyday in the battle that rages in our minds.
We finally feel like we get a break – the kids obeyed, the boss didn’t rant, the job didn’t take until late evening, the bills got paid and there was money left over – and then, out of nowhere, the trump card comes crashing to the table. Perhaps you’ve felt stuck, and then you read a scripture that inspires you, and fills your spirit with all kinds of hope about what God could possibly accomplish through you, and just as you’re starting to dream, Satan trumps your enthusiasm with a well-worn, oft-played trump card. “God can’t do that through you! You aren’t ________ enough! You don’t ________ enough! You haven’t _______ enough!” Just as soon as the faith had started to grow in you to believe that God could pull off the miraculous through you, an equal and opposite flood of doubt, fear, and insecurity overwhelms you, and you begin to fold what had been an incredible hand.
Many of us have. Many of us will. But none of us have to, because there’s another player at the table, and He holds the ultimate trump card. He has truth that can answer every one of the lies that Satan can try to play, and in this game, it all comes down to one reality:
IF GOD’S WORD IS TRUTH (John 17:17), THEN NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.
God’s Word is the Ultimate Trump Card, and because it is, we have to know it. We have to be able to play His trump cards anytime and every time that Satan attempts to trump the vision that God has given us. “You aren’t good enough” feels devastating until you trump it with the truth of 2 Corinthians 5:21. Suddenly, the pressure isn’t on you and I to be good enough, but instead to thank God for making us righteous in Christ. We don’t have to be strong enough, smart enough, big enough, because the truth of Scripture trumps every one of those cards from the devil’s hand.
In fact, the Ultimate Trump Cards from the Bible trump more than the lies from our enemy. They trump how we feel, what we think, and what seems like the right thing to do. One play from God’s Word, and every hand folds.
Maybe you’ve been too quick to fold when your enemy plays a lie, or perhaps you’ve given way too much power to your emotions and thoughts, and have allowed them to lead you away from the destiny and good works God has prepared for you (Ephesians 2:10)? Maybe it’s time to play with a new deck of cards. Try these ten truths from Scripture the next time you need to overcome a lying trump card with an Ultimate Trump Card.
| The Lie | vs | The Truth |
|---|---|---|
| You aren’t good enough | God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) | |
| You aren’t strong enough | I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Phil. 4:13) | |
| You aren’t brave enough | No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37) | |
| You aren’t smart enough | But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16) | |
| You haven’t done enough | Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (Philippians 3:16) | |
| You aren’t big enough | What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31) | |
| You don’t have enough | You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:4) | |
| You aren’t sincere enough | This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. (1 John 3:19-20) | |
| You don’t believe enough | He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” (Luke 17:6) | |
| You don’t know enough | If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. (James 1:5) |
