At the beginning of every game the visiting team has two choices.\u00a0 The first choice is heads or tails.\u00a0 The second choice (if they win the coin toss) is do we want to receive the kick-off or do we want to kick to the other team to start the game.\u00a0 The long held belief (although not always holding true now) is that as the visiting team you want the ball first.\u00a0 There are a couple of reasons for this logic.\u00a0 First, it is always easier playing with the lead than trying to play catch up.\u00a0 Secondly, if you can score on the first drive of the game you can somewhat take the crowd out of the game, therefore making it easier for your team.\u00a0 Spiritually speaking, Christians are the visiting team in this world, because it is not our home.\u00a0 Our citizenship is in heaven.\u00a0 In face 2 Corinthians 4:4 teaches that the satan is the god of this world. That is why it is so important for us to be prepared every day.\u00a0 If a team is going to play on the road, that week during practice they generally play music really loud during practice to get the team use to a lot of noise in case the crowd is really loud.\u00a0 They have meticulous meetings going over the playbook, hand signals, and other small details.\u00a0 Because in difficult situations a lack of communication could cost you the game.\u00a0 For Christians are meticulous preparation is prayer and study of the Word of God.\u00a0 It is part of the armor of God.\u00a0 They are both things that take time, but are so vital for a Christian if they want to live a victorious life. Prayer and the Word of God are our offensive weapons.\u00a0 Prayer can protect our mind while studying and meditating on the Word of God can protect our heart from being drawn away from God.<\/p>\n
We see in Matthew 4 with the temptation of Jesus by satan that Jesus’ power came from the Word of God.\u00a0 Every time satan tempted Jesus, Jesus countered the temptation by quoting the Word of God.\u00a0 We must realize as Christians that as long as we are in the world satan has home field advantage.\u00a0 Not only does he have home field advantage because we live in the midst of a fallen world, but satan also has the crowd on his side.\u00a0 Satan loves to use others to discourage us and distract us.\u00a0 In a game, if a wide receiver can’t hear what the quarterback is saying, the result can be disastrous.\u00a0 Therefore, they many times switch to using hand signals, but again every one on offense must know what the quarterback is calling.\u00a0 We must spend time with Jesus, study Him, and learn from Him if we are going to avoid falling into sin.\u00a0 We must know our opponent (satan) and his tactics (how he is going to tempt us and try to get us to sin), but then we must also know the play that will defeat whatever satan is trying to do.\u00a0 This is why we must be men and women of prayer and men and women of the Word, that is how God gives us victory on the road in a hostile stadium, with a hostile crowd, and a hostile opponent.<\/p>\n
Have you taken time today to work on your offense?<\/p>\n
By His grace and through His strength, may we live for Him!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the beginning of every game the visiting team has two choices.\u00a0 The first choice is heads or tails.\u00a0 The second choice (if they win the coin toss) is do we want to receive the kick-off or do we want … Read More