Touchdown Jesus

No, I am not a Notre Dame fan! Nor do I think that God cares one iota about the outcome of sporting events. But as another football season begins, I find some great similarities between this All-American sport and our walk with Jesus.

1. In football your team is always pressing towards the goal, and your opponent is always trying to keep you from it. In life our enemy is Satan, and he and his cronies are always trying to keep us from our goal (The Kingdom of God). If we follow the game plan (Christ's teaching), then we will be victorious.

2. In football it always seems that your opponent is crying to the referee. Accusing your team of committing some foul. In the spiritual realm Satan is our accuser. We can't pay any attention to what the other team is crying about. We have to stay focused on the goal.

3. Football players have to have a short memory. They can't focus on the failings of the past. Dropped pass, missed block, whatever, it doesn't matter. Forgive and forget, you've got another down to play. The same goes for us! We must never focus on our sins. Confess them and move on. Jesus is less concerned with our stumbling than He is with us focusing on the goal.

Philippians 3:12-14

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."