September 5, 2026
God Can Lose
Dr. Eric Thomas · The 52
The Message
The One Thing
God already made the investment and already put the win inside you. The only thing left is to scratch it off. Refuse to, and you become His most expensive loss.
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The doorway ahead: still yours to walk through
This Week's Message
What He Said
You Are His Workmanship
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10)
You weren't randomly made. You were intentionally designed for an assignment, before your mother even knew you were in her womb. If you're wondering why you keep chasing something that leaves you exhausted, it's because you're walking in a job instead of walking in the gift.
Scratch It Off
The church held real lottery tickets and scratched them off live. The point: it's not your money. Someone already set the money aside, win or lose, before you ever scratched. God already put the win inside you at creation. You don't create your winning. You reveal it.
"Stop asking God to make you a winner and start scratching off everything He put inside of you."
God Can Lose
Auburn paid New Mexico State $1.85 million in 2023 to lose. Rutgers paid UMass $1.55 million this year to lose. Nobody pays that much to take a loss unless the point isn't the money.
The application: if you don't become who God called you to be, you become one of His greatest losses. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) The giving isn't the part that matters most. The return is. If Jesus died and you don't receive everlasting life, that's a loss on God's investment.
Look What He Invested In You
"I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." (Psalm 139:14)
Poverty, spiritual or literal, keeps you focused on what you lack instead of what's already been deposited. Some of you carry gifts other people envy, and you're not doing anything with them. That gift is the investment. Sitting on it is the loss.
The Head, Not the Tail
"The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure... and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt be the head, and not the tail." (Deuteronomy 28:12-13)
Position isn't something you ask for. It's something you were already given and have to walk in.
Search: Not Yet Try or Turn
"Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD." (Lamentations 3:40)
Nehemiah's four silent months with God, before the fifty-two day wall rebuild, were about three things: search, try, turn. This week's word was only the first one: search. Stop judging and examining everyone else, your spouse, your parent, your boss, your kids, your past, while refusing to examine yourself. Try and turn are coming in future weeks of this arc.
The Benefits of Putting God First
A personal story: asked to speak at a corporate event on his own birthday for no real fee, the answer was yes because it would benefit the person who asked, not the speaker. Rushing to get there, a traffic stop ended without a citation.
The point isn't the traffic stop. It's that obedience done with the right spirit carries benefits you don't always see coming, and obedience done with a bad attitude forfeits them even when the task still gets done.
The win was already set aside before you scratched
The Word
The Word
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10 (KJV)
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jeremiah 29:11 (KJV)
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 (KJV)
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
Psalm 139:14 (KJV)
The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath.
Deuteronomy 28:12-13 (KJV)
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
Lamentations 3:40 (KJV)
Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
Lamentations 3:41 (KJV)
For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
Luke 12:48 (KJV)
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.
John 15:16 (KJV)
Do Not Just Read It
This Week's Assignment
Search your heart before you search anyone else's.
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Monday
Name What You've Been Avoiding
What's one thing about yourself you've been refusing to examine because it's easier to examine everyone else? Write it down before you pray about anything else today.
Lamentations 3:40: Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
Tuesday
Get the Name Out Your Mouth
Whose name do you keep bringing up when you explain why you're stuck: a spouse, a parent, a boss, an ex, your past? Say the name once, then ask God to show you your part instead of theirs.
Psalm 139:23-24: Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.
Wednesday
What Are You Really Chasing?
Chasing man, chasing God, chasing man again is a double-minded pattern. What have you been chasing for validation this year instead of walking in what God already called you to?
James 1:8: A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Thursday
Obey the Small Thing
Is there something small, an ask from your spouse, your church, your family, that you've been slow-walking? Do it today, and pay attention to the spirit you do it in.
Colossians 3:23: And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.
Friday
Scratch It Off
Name one specific gift or assignment God put in you that you haven't activated. You don't have to create it, it's already there. What's the first small action that scratches it off this week?
2 Timothy 1:6: Stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
The head, not the tail: position you were already given
Your Move This Week
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Fearfully and wonderfully made, on purpose
Arise and Build