I recently had a discussion with my pastor and he asked
me a basic question: “How do you define success or victory in the Christian
life? –or- “What does a mature Christian look like?”
That is a loaded question because there are so many
things talked about in Scripture on what a victorious / mature believer looks
like. Yet many of those things are subjective instead of objective (things that
don’t necessarily show up on life’s scoreboard.) I think that is why often churches get caught up in the legalism of
defining success as “not participating in the works of the flesh.” That is
easier to gauge than things like the fruit of the Spirit, etc.
In sports we tend to look at won-loss records for a
season or the scoreboard for a game; yet I have never defined success that way
for the teams I coached. (Of course some might say it is because I didn't often
see the positive side of the scoreboard or the win-loss column…)
In all honesty I can say there were times my teams won on
the scoreboard yet I didn't feel victorious; and there were times we lost on
the scoreboard but I was beaming with pride! And in all honesty I can say that
there have been times in life where I appeared to be “winning” and didn't feel
victorious; and times I appeared to be “losing” but felt incredible pride and
contentment in knowing my Lord was pleased…
So over the next few weeks I thought I would share some
of my “E”ssentials to true success - victorious living… (things like Execution
of the game plan; Ethics; Effort; and Esprit de Corps…)
After all the goal of a minister is to present believers
as complete or mature in their walks… (Colossians 1:28)
This week: Execution of the Game Plan
There were times we faced teams that simply put were much
better than us. This will sound like a defeated attitude but some of the teams
we faced would have beaten us on their worst day and our best day. Like what
often happens in life, it seemed like “no win” situations… and honestly if I judged
by a scoreboard that would be the case.
Yet in each of those instances I would present a game
plan to the team that would try to limit the opponent’s effectiveness, maximize
our effectiveness, and allow for us to at least make them earn their “W.” (In other
words we would pick our poison… i.e. if it was an incredibly fast, big, and
athletic team I knew they could and would enjoy dunking the ball a lot; yet I wanted
to see if they could shoot the ball. Therefore we would pack the defense in and
dare them to shoot.)
Sometimes this type of coaching would result in just
losing by 15 or 20 instead of by 30 or 40. But again the goal wasn’t hat games
scoreboard; it was execution that would help us grow as a team and get better
for the next game. It helped us accomplish objectives on players becoming
coachable in hard times. It helped the players develop skills to face
adversity.
Life is very hard at times! As believers one mark of
maturity that leads to true victory is studying/knowing God’s game plan for
life as it is spelled out in the Scriptures and in turn executing it in life. A
simple way I heard that put yesterday was this: “Always ask, What does the
Bible say about this?’”
Read Psalm 119 today. There are 176 verses that each
remind you of the importance of knowing and executing God’s game plan…
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