Good morning making space for God friends! I watched my grandson’s final basketball tournament game this past weekend. We are huge basketball fans in our family so as you can imagine we also love following all the latest NBA games. Sometimes we even dabble with a bet or two on websites like FanDuel. Anyway, I am happy to report that my grandson’s team won the finals. I can totally see him joining an NBA team one day! As I watched the game, I was conflicted by praying that my grandson’s team would win. I went between praying for God’s will and praying for Grey’s team to win. That got me to thinking….
What if we are not on the winning team? As a Christian, are we on the winning team? Which brings me to another story.
Several thousand years ago, born in a manger in a room for the animals, Jesus emerged. The Messiah humbly entered, hidden and yet to be revealed in time. He did not come as a great King but as the Suffering Servant. He came with the scorecard in His hand and when it was time to win the victory, he cried out to His Father: Take this cup from me…. and yet not my will but thine.
He won the winning shot; His death on the cross was not only victory but triumph; victory as He came and stood between our sins and a holy God opening the way for us to approach a holy God, but triumph as He offered us eternal life. His scorecard was a resounding YES for all who would believe in His name.
In today’s highly charged world, we cling to the cross as a reminder that the victory has been won. It is not whose political side you are on; it is in whom do we believe? Jesus offers us a different kind of life– one of freedom as we cling to Him. When we find ourselves distraught over the affairs in our families, our world, nation, workplace, we must remember that in our deepest stress we find true comfort in knowing that Jesus won the final victory.
And…. as I watched the children cheer their victory, I was reminded that the saints who have gone before us are cheering us on to the end of our time on this side of heaven.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the same, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-11)
