Two teams are battling on the football field. Both have fought hard for the entire game and the clock is running out. Both want to win and have given sweat, blood and every ounce of energy they have to win. The clock is ticking: 5, 4, 3, 2, and then 1. The buzzer sounds and every head in the bleachers gaze at the score board for the final score. For one team it is a declaration of a victory. To the other team it is a loss. To one team it is a celebration. To the other team it is a declaration of defeat.
In the past few months I have been thinking and pondering about how that, in so many ways, life is very similar to the football game. We all want to finish the game a winner. But in life, just as on the field, there are many fumbles, missed assignments, dropped balls, mixed signals, injuries and maybe even some who have just worn out in the battle.
In life, as in football, there are those who win and those who lose. But there is a great difference in that in the game of football, the loss of a game is eventually forgotten or at least the sting of defeat is gone. I have many fond memories of football practice, games, and pep rallies, the smell of grass on the field just before the game, having my ankles taped and the great sense of comradery as we as a team marched into battle to cheer of great fans, but there are very few games I can remember which were in the win column and which were in the loss column and even fewer scores are remembered. However, in life it seems I can recall just about every time I have “dropped the ball”, or, “missed my assignment”. They are, seemingly, ever with me.
We have an enemy, God calls him our adversary, and he is constantly fighting against me and laughing at my failures and repeatedly tells me I have lost the game. Many of us may finish our lives and are convinced that we have wasted them through our fumbles, failures and forfeitures. Our “final score”, based in our own performance, is not very impressive and we find ourselves ashamed and without hope.
The GOOD NEWS is that we have a loving God who knows that in the battle of life and against sin and the devil, we are certain to lose every time. This is the very reason He sent His Son into the World that we find one in whom to find a hope. Jesus is the Rock for every believer. He is the Victor for every child of God and in Him we never need to be ashamed. The Apostle Paul said in the book of Romans that even he was a loser in the game of life. He said, “For the good that I would do I do not: but the evil which I would not do, I do.” (Romans 7:19). He knew the agony of defeat. But he also knew the thrill of victory. His strength was in the knowledge that his victory was solidly in Christ and in Him alone. “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord…” (Romans 7:24, 25).
Every person who puts their faith and trust in The Lord Jesus Christ will be declared the victor when our life is over and we hear the buzzer and we face the final score. God has promised us, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, (fumbling the ball) or distress, (missed a block) or persecution, (run a wrong pattern) or famine, (grow tired and unable to go on) or nakedness, or peril, or sword (being injured and unable to finish the battle)? As it is written, for the sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” (Romans 8:35–37).
Regardless of how many times you have failed in life and have disappointed yourself, Jesus never sees you as someone He is ashamed of and disappointed but as one He loves and for whom He died on the cross. Only in Jesus will we finish well with a good FINAL SCORE. In Jesus – 100000, in flesh without Him – 0. How are you scoring in life today?
Until then…,
Bro. Glenn