“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
1 Peter 5:8 NIV
One of the things I look forward to in September is the new NFL season. I love watching football. I’m hoping the NY Giants can do something big this year! (Go Big Blue!) Anyways… I think the reason why I love football the most is because it involves so much strategy and team work. I believe that if you want to be successful in life as a Christian you have to have the same strategy as some football teams do. As Christians we have one opponent, the devil, and he is trying to oppose us as we try to advance Gods plan in our lives.
NFL Teams Know Their Opponent
During the NFL regular season most teams have at least a week to prepare for their next opponent. This involves team scouts studying the other team, watching film, and identifying the weakness of the other team. The scouts analyses the type of plays that their future opponents struggle to stop and learn all their signals and plays so that certain formations can easily recognized by the players during game time. If you look at your Christian life and our fight against the enemy, our scouting report has already been completed. It’s in the bible and we get this report from attending small group study and having mentors. By studying stories from the bible we can learn how to overcome the devil in every situation that we can come across in our lives. When we study the scouting report of our opponent, we put ourselves in good position to win. The devils strategies are the same. What may change is his method, which is why we need to stay on our guard to watch out for the clues that he might be trying something on you.
Develop a Strategy/Game Plan
Coaches take the scouting report that they receive from their staff and study it to determine what would be the best course of action to achieve victory. They come up with situations to put their team in so that they do not expose themselves to any weakness and ensure that their team is operating on their strengths. Before the game even starts the coaches considers every situation and play in the game so that the team can succeed. In the same way we need to ensure that we put ourselves in positions to win consistently. Before we start every day we need to know what situations we need to stay away from and what we need to do to consistently remain strong in Jesus. Examples, if you’ve quit smoking, don’t hang around other smokers. That might cause a greater temptation for you to smoke again. Once the coach determines the strategy for the upcoming game, then its time to practice the game plan.
Practice Makes Permanent
Professional football teams practice the situations they would likely face and the game plan that the coach gives them. This may involve hours of film study of their opponent, and days on the practice field remembering drills and formations that would give them the advantage. One thing I would like to say about football players. I want to give them a lot of credit because the majority of them are very smart to remember everything that they learn about the opposing team and to recognize it during an in game situation. Throughout our Christian lives, we take what we have learned in small groups and lessons that Pastors preached on Sunday and implement those strategies in our daily lives. By being prepared for whatever the enemy may try to throw at you, you will be prepared to be successful.
Take courage and follow Gods game plan for your live. the devil is seeking to see who is not equip to fight against him. You were made to win.