Recent comment by a professional football player: “"I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!!" AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO..." (copied from internet article) If you haven't seen this, a receiver dropped the game winning touchdown pass in the end zone. He lashed out at God for it, as you can see.
Think about it for a few minutes, does God really concern himself with whether we win or lose as much as we do? I know you can reference some of the Old Testament battles regarding Israel but they didn’t win every one of those and were still His people. If you have Christians on both teams, well somebody has to lose. Wow! How does He choose? How can He choose if He shows no favoritism?
Maybe it has more to do with our attitude while competing. I really do appreciate the desire some athletes, actors, singers, contestants and even co-workers have to recognize God in front of other people. But how do you compete, or work? What is your attitude like in the process? Are you giving Him glory and praise by your efforts or simply by gestures and speech? Do you compete with integrity (being honest and fair) and modestly (in attire or in having to be recognized continually)?
I’m not going to argue whether someone is a “true” Christian or not, frankly that’s between them and God. We all do things at some point that’s not pleasing to God, but do we stand up and point to the sky when those things happen? No! I thank God it’s not up to me to determine if someone’s saved. I worked with a guy that I would tell him, “I’m glad my salvation isn’t in your hands”. Point being, we make too big a deal out of the external things. Its dangerous focusing on outward expression because we begin thinking God owes us something! Hence the opening comments of this article. If you think God owes you anything you couldn’t be any more wrong!
I’m not saying this because I do so well at it; quite frankly I still struggle through. But I’m quite sure my co-workers don’t mind working with me and my customers like doing business with me. It’s not because I scream “praise God” when I get an order or kneel down and pray when I get an order. I believe it’s because I do my best to work with integrity.
Though I fail, I’m His
When I lose, I’m His
When I lose it’s my fault, not His
It’s not always about the result, it’s about the process
Col 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men
Question: Did God call us to be Successful or Faithful?
Hi Tim,
ReplyDeleteI saw that comment and I immediately though he was speaking of Jesus, but after a second read, can went safely assume that? He doesn't mention anyone, god or person. He could be thinking of Buddha or Allah.
But, IF he is writing of Jesus, we still don't know if he is a Christian nor how long he has been a christian. Assuming he is a Christian and was writing about Jesus, then here is an immature Christian. He was acting as a kid blaming someone else for his failure. All Christians are immature at one point (some their whole life), but hopefully we all grow out of it.
This athlete is different from the rest of us though because when his Christian immaturity shows, his audience is the whole sports world, not just a small set of family and friends.
If we are going to publicly admit to being a follower of Christ, then we have a obligation to Christ to represent Him to the best of our abilities, which this athlete obviously did not do.
After reading a couple of comment boards about this athlete and his tweet, I see that he made a fool of himself and a mockery of Christianity. If he hasn't already (and a quick Google search didn't reveal that he has), he needs to step up, apologize publicly to Christ and make it right.
Matthew 10:33 (KJV)
But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Your right it was a an assumption on my part. I assumed it because I've never heard a Muslim or Buddhist or most other religions speak of praise. But it worked for a good excerpt to start my point. What actually had me thinking about it was a Beauty Pageant contestant that made a comment that she and other Christian contestants, one of them would win because it was Gods will since they were believers. And you know, it could be in some very unusual cases but Christians tend to assume that because they are Christians they are supposed to win whatever it is. That mentality to me falls into the trap of the prosperity message. I like to win or come out ahead just as much as anybody, I'm in the business of sales. But the fact is we don't and when we don't instead of blaming God for the failure, accept it, thank Him for the opportunity and move on. Your also right about the growth aspect too. Thanks for the comment.
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