So much of our lives is centered on competition. We compete for victory from an early age...whether in kickball, board games, races or later in organized sports, classroom grades and ultimately in the workplace. I remember in the military school I attended we had to rank order all the classmates in our company from top to bottom for leadership potential. Even countries compete, as we just saw in the Winter Olympics. Sometimes competition goes to another level and becomes conflagration. In our day to day lives it's Democrats vs. Republicans, Yankees vs. Red Sox, Cowboys vs. Eagles, Toyota vs. Ford and Apple vs. Microsoft. But this morning I realized that, in a spiritual sense, we can desire the absolute best...true victory...for everyone, regardless of how we might normally be opposed or competitors. For there is a great competition in the heavenly realm over the soul of every man, woman and child. The competition centers on our eternal destiny and the key players are the ultimate forces for good and for evil. We are not able to win this battle ourselves but we do know that victory is actually available for all. In fact the game is already over, in a sense. Jesus won the battle with Satan when He foiled Satan's plan to destroy Him...in fact He turned that destruction into a great victory...over evil...over Satan....over death. Now the competition centers on influence. Satan tries to hide this victory from everyone and the Lord keeps announcing the outcome across time through His message in the Bible and in the lives of changed people. I think it is good to remember that, however else we may compete with each other in this life, we ought to want the absolute best for all people because we have a common enemy and a common champion.
Psalm 55:18 He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me. For there were many against me.
blessings,
Rob Smith
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