Victory247

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…pray for those who mistreat you”  Luke 6:27-28 (NIV)

Jesus tells us to do today’s verse. Are you kidding! Was this a misprint?! “Do good to those who hate you“???

I train athletes to be faster and stronger. My philosophy is to take the athlete through the exact movements of their sport with resistance to accomplish the desired increase of speed and strength. I remember the days that ankle weights were the big craze. You basically tied lead weights around your ankles and ran around like a crazy man.

That was proven to be harmful, but using weighted balls or large rubber bands is much safer and effective in replicating the movements with enough resistance to make athletes increase speed and strength.

That’s how I see this verse; Getting better by doing something that is harder than what we are use to.

‘Care about an enemy, do good to a hater, or pray for someone who messes with you’; try it and you will increase who you are as a person, and increase your dependence on God. You will be doing something that doesn’t come “naturally”, it has to happen “supernaturally”.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, bring me opportunities to increase who I am as a quality person. I can only pull this off with Your strength and perspective. Bring names into my head of people that are hard to love, do good to, or pray for, especially if it is family or friends. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline”  2 Timothy 1:7 (NIV)

When we trust Jesus Christ to come into our lives (see “START THE VICTORY” atop victory247.org), God gives us something! A spirit not of weakness and timidity, but a spirit of power, love and self-discipline. ‘Power’ and ‘self-discipline’ seem to be the tough, macho, hard-nosed attributes given here. Love doesn’t seem to fit in this list.

That is, only if we view love in the wrong light. Love actually is a tough thing to accomplish. It’s not fluffy and soft most of the time. It is an act of the will that ‘cares for and acts on someone else’s behalf over ourself.’

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, thank You that You gave me a spirit of love. Help me to care for others, even in those times I don’t feel like it. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“If the LORD delights in a man’s way, He makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with His hand” Psalm 37:23-24 (NIV)

When someone trips and falls down, it usually makes me laugh. It’s weird that we find humor in others’ misfortune of going to the ground unexpectedly, but we almost can’t help it.

Falls generated from slipping on ice, tripping on patroded terrain, or running into others, are always good for a chuckle. But my personal favorite has to be bicycle falls.

I remember biking with my 6’6″ high school buddy. He pulled alongside of me and I kicked his front tire (why?, who knows the brain of a teenage boy). His front brakes locked up, which threw him over his handlebars in what seemed at the time to be in slow motion. I remember him getting up from his fall into an all-out sprint, trying to catch and kill me as I pedalled away. I was laughing so hard I nearly crashed.

On the other hand, I have fallen off a bike, and I wasn’t laughing. On the contrary, I was hurt and frustrated. Falling isn’t so bad, it’s the landing that hurts.

God can hold us up in the middle of a fall, and make it just a stumble. We stumble in many ways; poor choices, saying harmful words, hanging with the wrong people, fighting with someone… We can confess and ask Him to get us back on track to avoid a painful and permanent fall.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, teach me to place my steps into Your firm footing of depending on You daily. And help me to recover from wrongful choices. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation”

Philippians 4:12 (NIV)

Paul was in a smelly, nasty prison when he wrote this verse. Chained twenty-four hours a day to a different Roman guard (for those of us who can’t relate; no TV, cell phone or internet access). Paul was a wealthy, top corporate exec of the Pharisees before he turned his life over to Christ. But now he is in a very humbling situation. So he really knows ‘what it is to be in need’ and ‘to have plenty’.

So what’s ‘the secret of being content’?—>

-> He truly trusted that God would take care of him, even if he died. His life was in God’s hands. He knew it was God’s responsibility to work things out.

-> He didn’t have the “if-then” mentality. “If things work out, then I will be happy”, “If I get this new job, then I will be fulfilled”, “If I had a romantic relationship, then my life would be complete”…

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, help me to truly appreciate where I am in life, who I am, and what I have. Give me peace in my spirit, quench my unrest with thank You’s. I place my life in Your hands. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped” Psalm 28:7 (NASB)

When I think of a ‘shield’ my mind wanders back to my youth watching great battle scenes with knights, lances, big swords and whatever that ball with spikes attached to a swinging chain is called. The ‘shield’ was protection.

Occasionally, I come across a particular scenario that I find very humorous. An adult man holding a woman’s purse for her. “Awkward!”. He has to make sure that he grasps it like he doesn’t really care about the purse, the loaf of bread hold is my favorite.

She is basically saying, “You are someone I can completely trust to protect this bag of valuable stuff“. She knows he will be a shield to all snatchers and thieves.

We all need protection with our deepest insecurities, issues, self-worth, mean people… We all need to be ‘helped’.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, help me to open up to You and continually hand You my “valuable stuff”. I know You are always there to be my help. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” 2 Timothy 2:15 (NIV)

The wording ‘Do your best‘ seems to be telling us that we aren’t expected to be perfect, just going in that direction. I know for me it’s almost like two steps forward, one step back, two steps forward, one step back…

One thing that helps me “go in that direction” and  grow closer to God, is reading the bible and continually trying figure out how it’s suppose to work in my daily life. ‘The word of truth’ referred to in today’s verse is mainly contained in the writings of the bible. But what is meant by ‘handling it’?…

One day a student brought mercury to school, which is very dangerous and illegal. I’m pretty sure this kid knew that. The school is even suppose to evacuate. I guess mercury, if ‘handled’ and touched with bare hands can absorb into the bloodstream as a fatal poison.

In the same way, handling the ‘word of truth’ by reading, pondering, studying, and figuring how to apply it, will absorb into the bloodstream of our character, and flow into our hearts.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, prod me to handle Your Words more and more. Penetrate Your truths into my heart and soul. Thank You for the blessings that will result. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it”  Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)

Jesus is giving an interesting and accurate observation of human behavior. We all seem to want certain things out of life, but we don’t seem to want to make the tough choices to get fulfillment and true success.

We want good relationships, we want to feel significant, we want direction, we want inner peace and joy…but we seem to choose pleasure over the proper steps to attaining our true needs and desires. Peer pressure and our own immediate gratification can be our downfall.

Hall of Fame NFL coach, Tom Landry, stated, “Leadership is getting someone to do what they don’t want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve”. God is the ultimate leader. We need to continually place ourselves under His care and authority by studying His playbook (Bible), His weight room strength training  (dependence on the Holy Spirit), and His team meetings (prayer times).

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, help me to take the right steps toward true fulfillment. When I stray, get me back on the right ‘road’. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)

God wants to bless us and hear our requests. But we seem to be too impatient to let Him work out the answers.

If you knock on a door, you need to do it more than once or the person inside the house will think something just happened to bump the door.

Like comedian Steven Wright once said, “Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time”.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, give me the patience and persistence in prayer to allow You to take care of me. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name” Psalm 100:4 (NIV)

Having an “attitude of gratitude” is essestial to a healthy relationship with our God, and with a healthy relationship with “ourselves” and others.

I remember my sister asking my dad for money. He would open his wallet and as he was handing over the cash, she would be headed for the door like a sprinter gets passed the baton in a track relay event.

There was no “thank you”, just an expectation that the request would be granted. I think how rude that was. Then I think of how I do the same thing to my heavenly Dad. I ask for things, He works behind the scenes to take care of me, but I just move on the the next prayer request.

We need to look people (especially those we take for granted, like family) in the eyes and thank them. Also, we need to daily stop, think through what God has done for us, and present Him with “continual thank you’s”.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, develop in me a heart of thanksgiving in all of my relationships. It’s good to know that we can bless You, as well as, being blessed by You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds”  Hebrews 10:24 (NIV)

I was always fascinated with cowboys on TV when I was a little kid. I had no idea all the equipment they wore had a purpose, I just knew they wore it and it was so cool!

The hat, chaps, scarf, boots, gloves, and most importantly, the spurs. They would jingle, jingle as the cowboy would strut through those swinging saloon doors.

It wasn’t until later in life that I realized that spurs weren’t just a form of the Early West bling. They would be jabbed into the sides of the horse to jolt him to go faster. I guess we could say they were the horses’ form of an energy drink.

Today’s verse is telling us to ‘spur’ others. Words of praise or encouragement, acts of kindness and gifts, all can give us that jolt of energy we need to keep going. When people see us, hopefully they are hearing that jingle, jingle coming their way.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, help me be convinced of how much You love me, so that I will be a ‘spur’ for others. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.