If you are a fan of any major sport, you have probably spent time going over some great plays! Whether it was a clutch hit in baseball or a great shot late in a basketball game. Maybe it was a great goal in football (soccer) or ice hockey. A great pass or pass rush in American football, or your favorite tennis player finally won the match! It is tremendous fun to watch and rejoice over a great play made by your team. Having your team win is (for a sports fan) absolute joy and a great reason to celebrate. What about the great plays by the losing team? Do you even remember them? Let’s talk.
Winning Teams!
As a Red Sox fan for over 50 years now, I can easily make a list of great plays that sent me and others to absolute ecstasy. Timely hits by Carl Yastremski, George Thomas, Wade Boggs, Nomar Garciaparra, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, J. D. Martinez, and many, many others.
Listing the details here would not only bore anyone who is not a Red Sox fan, but they would also detract from the point of this post.
Take a minute to think about YOUR favorite team (if you have one) and what you have really enjoyed with them.
Really, please.
If you don’t have a team you follow, think back on events in your life that represented a “win” in your life. Yes, you do have those moments!
So, both groups, take a minute to relish and cherish. Having that feeling before we go on is going to be helpful for you to understand what I will say later.
Ok, ready to go on? If so, let’s go. If not, go back until you are ready!
Losing Teams!
For every winning team, there is a losing team. As people, we seem to forget that fact, especially when celebrating with tremendous joy. It’s not wrong to do that, not at all. (If it is wrong, then I have committed that wrong many, many times!)
We may have to think hard to find the great plays that the losing team had. They may have taken the lead on an amazing play, or sometimes even worse, they tied the score at a critical time.
I have seen stadiums absolutely go from excitement to what seemed like total silence because of what just happened in the game. It is amazing how quickly that change can happen, no, how quickly it DOES happen.
What’s The Message?
I don’t know of any championship team (or individual champion) in any sport that had only perfect games every time. There has never been such a dominant season by anyone, anywhere. Yet, we don’t seem to remember the “losing” team’s successes. We have programmed ourselves to rejoice in our successes and to forget other successes.
Since that is true for most of us, here is my point:
Why, oh why, do some Christians focus on the successes that Satan has had? Don’t we know for a fact that he loses? Oh, he and his team will score some points, win some games but it doesn’t matter. As the season goes on, the informed remember that he is the loner at the end of it all.
People who do focus on Satan and his successes tend to be the ones that forget he is NOT going to be the winner at the end.
Lucifer thought he would win the battle against God. Instead, he lost that one.
Satan thought he had Job beaten. He was wrong about that one too, as Job’s recovery was absolutely amazing!
He was thrilled to have Jesus killed. He really thought he won. Well, he did not see what was coming next!
Satan is trying hard to keep America divided along political, economic, and racial lines. I am totally convinced that he will also lose this battle. As such, I am not really interested in hearing about his victories in the past. I am more interested in God’s victories in the present!
Just as importantly, Satan did everything he could to make sure you did not or do not accept Christ’s sacrifice and gift to all of you and to me. He lost there as well. Yes, he did!
So, fellow Christians, get excited about God’s successes and ultimate victory! Celebrate! Feel the excitement and joy!
Please comment and/or respond to what you heard inside of you as you read this! Let’s share!
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