Thursday, April 10, 2014
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Well, it had been a long wait, like 20 years, but then the 1996 New York Yankees won the World Series! Now, they had to beat the champs to do it, the Atlanta Braves. And after the first two games of that best of seven series, I thought the Yankees had gone into a coma; they got creamed! That's when it got exciting. They came back to win the next two games, and then the series was tied at two games apiece of course. And the Yankees, then, appeared to doze off again in game five. They were behind six to nothing!
Speaking of dozing off, that's what at least one Yankee fan did, including the guy I heard buying a newspaper the next day. See, he saw the headline announcing that the Yankees had come back and won that game eight to six. He grabbed the newspaper, he saw the outcome of the game, and then he said... (Well, I can't tell you everything he said), but "I can't believe it! I gave up on them in the seventh inning; I went to sleep!" Well, he missed a great victory.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "It Ain't Over."
Our word for today from the Word of God is a verse we need at least several times a year I think. Maybe this is one of your days for it and God knew that. Galatians 6:9. Here we go, "Let us not become weary in doing good." Maybe you're feeling that way right now. "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if (there is an if)... if we do not give up."
Now, God is challenging the mistake that we make so often that costs us His best. We give up too soon. Like that sleeping Yankee fan, he looked at the way the game seemed to be going, decided it was as good as over, and he missed a great victory. Well, God doesn't want you to make that same mistake with something that you've been hoping for; something that looks like it just isn't going to happen. You're tending to give up. But God is flagging you down today to say, "Don't become weary in doing good. The harvest you've hoped for is coming." It's like Yogi Berra said, "It ain't over 'till it's over."
The problem is that we look at the score right now and we lose hope. But on God's scoreboard it's only your third inning, or the sixth or maybe the seventh. And maybe you're saying, "Well, there just isn't enough time for it to happen now." Or, "I can't see any way it could happen." Be careful! You're underestimating your all-powerful God. After all, He's the One who delivered a nation from Egypt in one night. But we tend to assume what the final score will be based on the score in the middle of the game. And that's when we give up and we start taking God's will detours. We panic.
We put together some patchwork solution of our own. We start leaning on our own understanding instead of trusting in the Lord with all our heart. Or we just stop hoping or praying or looking for it, which leads me to that wonderful challenge I heard years ago from a seasoned old saint, "Never doubt in the darkness what God has told you in the light." Don't give up in the middle of the game. Don't give up even if it's near the end of the game. You can't tell what God is going to do for a wonderful finish to this game.
God has a way of hitting bases loaded, grand slam home runs in the bottom of the ninth with two outs if you don't give up before the harvest comes. I just hope you don't miss that grand finish because you gave up on the game too soon.