Hopefully, you agree with me that life is indeed a wonderful and spectacular journey. As Christians we know that this trip can be and often is somewhat of a hazardous adventure.
Deliberately choosing the path that Jesus walked is by no means easy and to do it publicly is tantamount to putting a bull’s eye on your back and volunteering to be target practice for life’s live fire exercises. Celebrating one’s faith is giving the devil an easy target in a crowd, on a bus, in your marriage, on your job or even in church. Publicly proclaim God, and you will be tested.
As long as you’re not doing anything to attract Satan’s attention, you probably won’t. If you buy into the premise that life is a random series of events and challenges, that somehow you live as an insignificant whim of the universe, or there are no eternal consequences for your actions, then Satan need not worry about where you’ll end up. He has your room already reserved. He has no reason to seek you out.
How does the movie title say it? “Dead Man Walking.” The title seems to make my point better than I can.
However, if you just pay attention to God’s Word, listen to Jesus’ teaching and attempt to abide by the lessons of scripture, the devil will become intent on wreaking havoc on your world. He, like the Lord, is in this thing for keeps. Most of us cannot get our minds around this because few of us have ever been put to the test of putting it all on the line.
An example is when you were a kid (way back in the day) and you played marbles for keeps for the first time. It might have been when you gambled with real money or placed a significant sports bet and lost. Perhaps you gave your heart and your treasure away for the first time and got burned. That sinking feeling was enough to avoid playing for keeps ever in life again, and maybe even in love.
The hard part to comprehend is that the devil is playing for keeps all the time. This is his Super Bowl, and your soul is the trophy.
That’s what makes God’s mercy and grace so extraordinary. In God’s game, and it is God’s game, it’s never over until you take your last breath. God’s got next. He is the originator of the game and the creator of the rules. He’s fixed the game in our favor, and all we have to do is read the rule book.
You never foul out. You never get disqualified and, believe it or not, you never get injured. As long as you’re moving through life with an eye on Christ and an ear for the Word and a heart stuck on others, you win.
Hear me clearly! If you let the devil convince you it’s a lost cause, this game is no fun, just quit, then he wins because you wind up thinking it’s not worth your time and effort and life is certainly not worth going all in.
Not playing God’s game is playing Satan’s game. Satan’s is like expecting to beat the house in Vegas. Soon you’ll be getting on a plane wondering where the good times and all the money went. God’s game is more like bingo, where you know if you play long enough, the prize is yours because everybody wins. Jesus guaranteed it.
