Spotting a few…

“I’ll spot you four touchdowns and still beat you!”  Those were the words of my daughter’s boyfriend as he recounted a conversation with our grandson over an old Nintendo video game.  You see, the game was a classic, but you had to know how to play it.  And the hours he had put in on it gave him the upper hand.  He knew that he would win… and he knew that it would be that much more impressive when he did even after spotting the four touchdowns.

Sometimes God does the same thing.

He spots the devil a few touchdowns so that when He comes back in the fourth quarter and blows him away… it will be all the more impressive.  It will be a clear demonstration of His power.

Does it seem that the enemy has a few points over you?  An illness?  A lost job?  A broken relationship?  A car accident? Maybe it is a time of discouragement, or depression. 

When it seems like you can’t come back… like the game is over… like you have been beaten… hold on!  The comeback is going to blow you away!

God wants to keep our attention. 

But nobody stays for the whole game when it is a blowout.  They leave early to beat the traffic.  And so, sometimes He spots the devil a few points in our game of life, like He did Job.

God knows He is ultimately going to prevail.  He is just building great testimonies in the ones He has called to Him.

“I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror, I hated myself… but now I know that I am loved of God!”

“I wasn’t supposed to get full motion back in my leg after the accident… but now I am running a 4 minute mile!”

“You couldn’t get any lower than I was… But God saved me!”

We love to watch underdogs win.  And we love to see great games played down to the wire.  We are in to the “bottom-of-the-ninth-bases-loaded-full count-2-out-tie score” at bats.  They get our attention.  We become part of the game.

And He knows it.

All of heaven is standing on the bleachers… watching your game. 

God may have spotted the enemy a few touchdowns in your life… a few setbacks… a few disappointments.  But you can be sure that He will be holding you on His shoulders in the winner’s circle.

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing [this], that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have [her] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”  James 1:2-4

SDG