Shh! Don't Tell!

For the first time in our lives we have had the privilege of attending almost all of our grandson's baseball games, courtesy of a move to his home state. Last year, wins were the exception rather than the norm. This year . . . let's just say they haven't lost a game yet.

Playing is fun, but there is no denying that winning infuses the game with an extra-good feeling. Now, my family knows I am not knowledgeable about sports. Aside from rule ignorance, I am so slow to see things that all but extremely obvious moves are beyond me. Embarrassingly aware of the fact that it gets old explaining ad nauseum why certain balls are worthless, I try to keep most questions to myself. That's why I didn't ask about the frenetic hand signals I kept seeing my grandson's head coach making. I did know enough to realize that coaches make secret signals to their players to let them know how to proceed in the game. I was impressed that at this tender age (11 year olds) the kids were skilled enough not only to play, but to incorporate prescribed actions into plays. That spoke of a level of proficiency that absolutely dazzled me. Must be why they are winning this year, I thought every time I saw said coach with his signals.

Then my daughter-in-law clued me in. In a casual conversation, she herself brought up the signals. She told me that she had asked her son when in the world the coach had had time to teach them the meaning of all those complicated signals. After all, she had taken her son to all his practices, yet not once had she seen the coach give lessons on signals. Her son's answer made us crack up.

The signals mean nothing. Other than two simple signals--one meaning, I'm hungry, hurry it up so I can go home and eat, and the other, Hit the ball hard and RUN as fast as you can, the gazillion other signals are absolutely a work of fiction. Their only purpose? To intimidate the other team. And their team's winning streak seems to say that the intimidation is working! (Please keep this under your hat--wouldn't want to let the opposing teams in on this intimidation tactic!)

After a good laugh, though, the fake signals got me to thinking. We are all familiar with the analogy about the devil in I Peter 5:8, "... the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." Notice the word as. The devil is not a real lion, he just tries to act like one; by extension, then, he does not have the power of a real lion. Jesus is the lion from the tribe of Judah. He is the real power source. All the devil has at his disposal is fake intimidation.

As a young girl, my Mexico City friend Yola suffered from an embarrassing skin disease. Young women, for the most part, desire to be attractive. Disfiguring skin ailments don't allow for that. After many different kinds of treatments, all to no avail, at age 15 she attended a service in which she felt led to go forward for prayer. In the morning, when she looked in the mirror, low and behold--the disfiguring disease was gone. Vanished.

A few years later found her at a conference where she was one of a few young people scheduled to speak. She had been asked to share the testimony of her healing. That morning, though, a small blemish, exactly like the disease that had left her, appeared on her neck, not visible to others but she knew it was there. She asked her pastor, who was present at the conference, if she should proceed with sharing that she had been healed; she didn't want to lie.

The pastor gave her some great words of wisdom. "The Lord healed you," he said. "The enemy is trying to intimidate you into believing that the healing was a lie. Who are you going to believe? A liar (the devil) or God's word?" 'Nuff said. My friend ignored the devil's intimidation tactic and gave her testimony. The blemish disappeared.

Old slewfoot has other intimidation tactics that are even more insidious: internal attacks that try to demolish our strength and standing in the Lord.

How did Jesus defeat the devil when He was tempted? By rebuking the enemy with God's very words (Matthew 4 and Luke 4). How did my friend Yola stand up to the enemy's intimidation? She stood on I Peter 2:24, "by whose stripes ye were healed." That is also how we defeat the fear struck in our hearts by the old fake lion's toothless roaring. By standing on God's Word.

When old toothless whispers in your ear, "You're worthless," stand on what God says of you in I Peter 2:9, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." In today's English, "peculiar" means odd. Peter was writing in Greek. In the day when the Old King James version was translated from that language to English, "peculiar' meant "belonging to." In other words, that verse is saying that we are a special people belonging to God, transformed from ordinary to extraordinary by the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit. If God has called you precious, who are you to contradict? You are NOT worthless!

When the tempest roars against you and you begin to sink like Peter when he walked on the water, remember how Peter overcame his sinking--he cried out to his Master and reached out to Him. Maybe we don't have Jesus here in the flesh, but we have His Word. John 1:1 reads, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." If you want to see Jesus, just look at His Word. The Word, the Bible, is Jesus! Reaching out to Jesus by standing on His very words is not indicative of weakness but of strength! Find a Scripture that speaks to your need and claim it as your own. The enemy will always retreat! Purpose to be old toothless's Waterloo!

The kinds and number of tempests that come against us are countless--our enemy studies us, then tries to push those buttons he thinks will make us cave and leave our walk with Jesus. Don't give up!

When the multitude of men who had followed Jesus across the sea after the multiplying of the loaves and fishes deserted Him (they didn't respond very well to His telling them that things weren't always going to be hunky-dory, there were disciplines that needed to be addressed if they wanted to continue walking with Him), only the twelve remained. Jesus looked around (as if he didn't know why the others had given up following Him) and asked, "Will ye also go away?"

Peter, he of the too-quick-to-answer-and-jump-in-with-both-feet tendency, responded with, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life" (John 6:68). He might have had a propensity for not thinking things through before acting, but with these words he cemented forever the fact that, despite his imperfections, he is counted among the wisest of men. When the going gets tough, those who would be victors stick to Jesus.

I don't want to scare you, but the enemy, as Peter said, is actively out to get us. But do not give in to fear! Knowing the enemy's tactics is half the battle. Knowing what he's going to try and put over on us absolutely helps us be ready to overcome the attacks when they come (2 Corinthians 2:11).

Don't let our enemy's crazy signals strike fear into your heart! He is toothless. We are the ones with the power and the victory! Be encouraged, hold your head high, and walk like the victor you are!

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37).