Hold onto the Victory
By Grant Gaines
In 1978, the New York football Giants were playing their divisional rival the Philadelphia Eagles. As the season was winding down, both teams were fighting for the last playoff spot in their conference, making the already heated rivalry game even more important.
After nearly 60 minutes of fighting, clawing, and battling, the underdog Giants had the lead 17-12 and the football. The Eagles were out of timeouts, out of the game, and out of hope. The announcers were discussing the massive implications of this victory for the Giants as New York’s quarterback Joe Pisarcik took the snap for what was supposed to be the final play of an incredible upset over their rivals.
But the atmosphere in New York’s home stadium completely changed as the football began to squirm from Pisarcik’s grasp while trying to hand the ball off to his Hall of Fame fullback Larry Csonka. The ball bounced once, twice, and three times into the outstretched hands of…yep, you guessed it, a Philadelphia Eagles’ cornerback who scampered with the ball for a game winning touchdown in an unbelievable turn of events now known by Eagles’ fans as “The Miracle in the Meadowlands”.
The victory was in the Giants’ hands—all they had to do was not fumble the football and they would control their own destiny going forward towards the playoffs. But they fumbled! And in that moment—they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
And if I can use this story as an analogy for our spiritual life, I believe that is what many Christians do today—we snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
You see, 1 John 4:4 (NIV) says, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” According to the God-inspired Holy Scriptures, we have overcome Satan because of the presence of God’s Spirit in our lives. This means that there is no sin, addiction, or bondage that can ever get victory over us…unless we allow it.
So if this is the case, then how do we “hold onto the ball” and maintain our God-given victory over sin?
Well, first we must know what that victory looks like. Victory over sin does not mean that we won’t be tempted, but rather it means that we now have a choice to give into that temptation or not. 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NLT) says, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you can endure.”
You see, Satan can still tempt us to sin but he can’t force us to sin. Because of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, we now have the choice to say “No!” to sin. Or as Paul says it in Romans 6:18, we are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness—we have a choice!
Secondly, in order to hold onto the victory, we need to use our freedom of choice to actively resist this temptation.
James 4:7-8 (NIV) says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you.”
According to these verses, Satan will flee from us, but did you notice what we must do to resist him? We must first submit ourselves to God by accepting and obeying His commands and we must also draw near to Him by spending time in His Word and pray daily.
That’s how we live in the victory—we simply choose to exercise our God-given victory. And it’s through drawing near to God and submitting ourselves to His commands that we avoid being like the 1978 Giants and fumbling away our victory.
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
©Grant Gaines 2014
