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Issue link: http://magazine.kcm.org/i/1259480
When I was playing high school football, I always grinned when guys showed up at the start of the season saying, “I’m gonna try this out!” I knew right away what was going to happen. When they got out on the field, they were going to get hammered…and they weren’t going to make the team. One reason I knew this was because I understood what they were up against. They were going to be facing guys whose greatest thrill in life was to flatten each other. Guys who pushed themselves almost to the breaking point all week long to get in shape. Guys who put up with sore muscles, bruises, bloody noses and whatever else they had to endure—all to play a game they didn’t even get paid for. When you’re playing against a bunch of guys like that, the “try this out” mentality doesn’t cut it. You have to absolutely love the game. You have to be determined to play—and play to win. You have to want it so much, that even when you’re getting slammed from all sides you’re saying, “Somehow, I’m going to succeed at this!” Otherwise, you won’t last long at all. You’ll get the wind knocked out of you and end up running for the locker room while the rest of the team is still out there on the field punching and pounding one another and calling it “fun.” Winning at the Life of Faith In my years as a believer, I’ve discovered something similar is true about living by faith in God. It’s the most thrilling, powerful adventure there is, but it doesn’t work for those who take a wait-and-see attitude. It doesn’t produce results for people who just hear a few messages about it and say, “I think I’ll give that faith stuff a try.” If you want to win at the life of faith, you have to really want it. You have to take the same attitude Abraham did in the Bible. Talk about someone who wanted to walk by faith! Abraham set the standard! He wanted to walk in the manifestation of God’s power more than anything else on earth. He wanted it more than he wanted his family. He wanted it more than he wanted his own life. He wanted God so much, that he’d believe and act on His WORD no matter what anyone else thought or said about it. You can see that by how he responded when God told him, at 100 years old, that he and his 90-year-old wife were going to have a baby. He not only had audacity enough to believe it, he made a public announcement: “I’m the father of many nations,” he said. “From now on, don’t call me Abram. Call me Abraham, the Father of a Multitude!” Can you imagine how people reacted to that? They must have treated Abraham like a laughingstock. They might not have mocked him to his face because he was the richest man around; but behind his back, I’m sure they pointed at him and snickered, “That old man has taken leave of his senses! There’s no way he and his old, barren wife are going to have children at their age. It’s impossible.” BVOV : 5