Good morning,
Wow! What a game. I am only a casual fan of American football, but because some folks from church decided to meet for a meal and watch some of the Super Bowl, my wife and I went along for the fellowship. The team that many experts said would be sure to win soon found itself in trouble. Halfway through the game they were far behind the young team, so my wife and I decided it was time to go home. The announcers said that no team that had gotten that far behind had ever won this final game before. Much later this evening we decided to check the news to see the final score. We were amazed. The game was not over. In fact, the two teams each had the same score. Soon we got an announcement that the team that had been so far behind won the game in overtime. The team members and their fans were overjoyed! What they had done broke many records and was totally amazing.
It suddenly occurred to me that what happened during this game was in many ways how things are going for those of us in God’s family. In the last several hundred years the church had seemed to be making wonderful progress in reaching out to our world with the Good News of God’s love for his world, and for his offer to give eternal life to anyone who was willing to admit their sinfulness and ask Jesus to give them eternal life. All he asked was faith in him, and a willingness to obey his rules and directions. But just in our lifetime, we have been confronted with hate and anger that has seemed to have overwhelmed the victories we had been enjoying. We are seeing cultures and countries turning their backs on God’s people, the Jews, and on his family of faith and obedience that we call Christians. The good news is that the spiritual “game” is not over yet. The Apostle Paul encouraged the believers in Corinth by writing, For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!(2Cor.4:17) I know nothing about what the coach said to his team here on earth at half time, but I am quite sure he was doing his best to get his team back to the basics, and not to give up. I do know that God tells us, So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.(v.18) Paul finished his encouragement by writing, For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.(v.18) The team members who won today will get a special earthly ring, but for those of us who put our trust in God, and keep following where he leads us, we will soon be wearing eternal crowns of victory that will never get lost or lose their value. Dear Lord, help us to Never Give Up!
2 Corinthians 4:17 For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
Roy Wisner
