Fired Up to Victory

When I open my email inbox each morning, usually I first scan down what's new to delete "junk" and mark some newsletters or correspondence to read later, but I often pause in the process to read the shorter devotional emails. One morning, the first devotional I read told a story about runners in a Special Olympics event in Seattle. Just after the start of the race, one runner fell. In response, all the other runners stopped and turned around to help him. Then, together they ran the race, all crossing the finish line together.

The next devotional I paused to read was titled "I, Me, Mine, Myself," written by Charles Swindoll. He wrote that "ours [America in particular] is an age of gross selfishness. The "me" era." That was a huge contrast to the previous devotional where the "we" win was more important than "me."

 

Then, I read a devotional in which Dietrich Bonheoffer wrote that only the humble believe God and that He, in turn, "is near to lowliness, He loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken." We just celebrated Christmas when the Lord Himself became "poor, low, lowly, and weak out of love for humankind," giving up His position so we could "win" together.

 

After wading through some more mail, I came across these words from Anne Graham Lotz, "If we accept [Jesus'] offer and put our hand of faith in His, He will walk with us hand in hand, not only through the remainder of our journey, but through the gates of heaven that will be opened wide for us." Now that is a win, a victory, which echoed that day's KLOVE Scripture verse, Psalm 62:7—"My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me." (NLT)

 

Our victory in this world does not come as the world expects. It isn't about "me." It's about "we." It's about our hand in Jesus' hand and our hands holding the hands of others.

 

Have you heard of the champion race horse, Seabiscuit? Red Pollard, the jockey who rode Seabiscuit knew just what would make him run and win. He said, “Here’s what happens when he falls behind: He’s got to get eye to eye with another horse who’s got fire in his eye. And after just a couple of seconds of that he will take off and he will win the race.”

Photo courtesy of the internet.

 

That is a great illustration as to why followers of Christ must not be loners but instead must be "we."

 

Praying moms, you and I are not meant to be "me" but "we." Just as we need Jesus, our Head, we also need each other, the Body. We need the fire in each other to stir us up to win!

 

So, as the writer of Hebrews urged, let us keep gathering together to pray and in doing so we can "fire up" one another to victory! (Hebrews 10:24-25)