Play the Play...

But You give Your love to me

You open up Your heart unselfishly

Lord, in Your embrace now I can say, I surrender

CHORUS:

Everything I held so precious

Everything I kept away

I give it up, give it up

All for You, I give it all for You

Everything I held as treasure

I give it all for You, I give it all for You

Joy Williams ~ Surrender

Album: By Surprise

I recently heard the author Francis Chan give this great spiritual analogy that spoke to me so much, it inspired me to start this blog… (I will be paraphrasing it (adding some details that pop into my head), because I don’t have the video in front of me.)

So you’re at a football game (please keep reading even if you aren’t a sports fan…=) In my opinion, this is one of the greatest analogies I’ve ever heard!)

So you’re at a football game…you’re so excited! You’re there to root for your team & you’re sure they’re going to win. They’ve got the best coach, the best assistant coach, the best uniforms, the best equipment…how could they lose?
You wait with growing excitement as both teams huddle up & discuss their plays. You can tell even from where you are that your team is excited…they’re like horses chomping at the bit, pawing at the ground ready to go. They do their “On 3, go team” thing. Then the whistle blows…and instead of getting in their formation your team goes & sits on the bench. Naturally the other team is surprised, but they don’t miss the opportunity to score a touch-down.
Then comes time for the next huddle. You can tell that your team is really excited again, then the whistle blows...and again instead of facing off the other team they go off to the benches.
This goes on for so many points that soon it becomes time for your team to make a serious decision. They need to start playing the play their coach is calling or they’re going to lose. They need to be unified, listening to their coach & courageous…or they might as well not play at all…

I’m sure some of you’ve already seen the connection to our lives, but I’ll go ahead & explain…

We as the body of Christ are the team…we have the best coach (our Lord God, Abba Father), the best assistant coach (our prescious Savior Jesus Christ ), the best uniforms (we are clothed in God’s armor Ephesians 6:10-18, God’s), & the best equipment (the Holy Spirit is our Comforter & Helper). What more do we need???

We get in our huddle as we go to church & Bible studies, small groups. We get excited as we pray and feel the Lord’s presense with us. We make a plan or hear the Lord’s voice telling us to do something. BUT, then “the whistle blows”, it’s time for us to go out into the “real world” & actually do something. Challenging things that take strength, courage, boldness, we don’t. We take the easy way out…& sit on the bench. We who should be on fire! We who can do all things through Christ who gives us strength! (Philippians 4:13) We who house the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God!

The “other team” whether it’s a pre-believer who we’re being called to talk to or Satan, attacking our life straight on or anyone in our life who opposes our spiritual or moral beliefs; they will not wait for us to sum up the courage…we need to be ready.

How many times though do we as believers take that easy way out. Sit on the bench, because we’re scared.
The Lord is SO willing to give us the strength we need…all we need to do is ask for it!

We as believers need to realize the cross-roads ahead of us. We need to take the road less traveled, pray for the strength & play the play.

Please do not think that I claim to be perfect in this. I constantly find myself in times that I’m not surrendering…ugh!!!! I don’t expect to be perfect…BUT perfection is the what I’m striving for…

My mom & I have been reading a book by Andrew Murray called Absolute Surrender. It’s a great book so far & I know I’ll be quoting from it in the near future. Aaannnd…now that I’m flipping through it…I see a section that goes right along with this analogy:

“You know in daily life what absolute surrender is. You know that everything has to be given up to its special, definite object and service. I have a pen in my pocket. That pen is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing, and that pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if I am to write properly with it. If another holds in partly, I cannot write properly….

“And now, do you expect that in your immortal being, in the divine nature that you have received by regeneration, God can work His work, every day and every hour, unless you are entirely given up to Him? God cannot. The Temple of Solomon was absolutely surrendered to God when it was dedicated to Him. And every one of us is a temple of God, in which God will dwell and work mightily on one condition—absolute surrender to Him. God claims it; God is worthy of it; and without it, God cannot work His blessed work in us.

“God not only claims it, but God will work it himself.” ~ Chapter 1

I will say farewell on this note…this section is a lot to think & pray over (I know it was for me…=) ); so I will let you…

Au Revior…until next time. =)
Many Blessings!
Tiffani

PS: I heard Francis Chan tell this analogy in the Study Guide DVD set for his book Forgotten God.