Sometimes God uses interesting ways to illustrate His Word and the point He is making. Last week we’d heard a sermon about the importance of keeping on in the Christian faith and not coasting along or resting on your laurels and thinking you’d done enough. It was illustrated practically that afternoon when we watched a football match.
Our team, the Sydney Swans had in the first part of the game had the majority of ball use and yet trailed on the scoreboard, because they did not kick accurately for goal. It seemed their efforts were being wasted. Sometimes in the Christian life we can feel like that. We can feel our efforts are being wasted and not achieving what we aim for. That’s when we need to keep going.
As the game proceeded it was a mixture of some bits of brilliant play and other times where they fumbled the ball and turned it over to the opposition. Their mistakes were costly, as often they resulted into the opposition team scoring too easily. The same applies in the Christian life. Sometimes our mistakes make it so easy for the enemy to get in and undo the good work we have done and we have to start over.
But what struck me most was even though they trailed on the scoreboard for most of the day, our Sydney team never gave up. They never coasted along or decided it was all too hard. They kept fighting for very ball and every point. We need to be like that in our Christian life. We can’t afford to sit back and think we have done enough just because we have had x number of years of teaching Sunday school, or witnessing, or caring for others or singing or whatever form of ministry we have been involved in. We need to keep on till the end, which is when our earthly life is over. That’s what our Sydney team did and the end result was Sydney won the match. It was a matter keeping their eyes on the goal – exactly what we need to do in the Christian life.
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