🏈 🔵 I went to Gunter’s football banquet tonight and loved it! It’s mainly a time for coaches to say great things about their players.

I was sitting there thinking, in the many sports I played I never had a bad coach. They all put their heart into their job, set a good example, and tried to make me a better person and athlete. I wasn’t always the best player but I always had great coaches. So my favorable experience has made me partial toward coaches, no doubt. But I love coaches and especially love to hear them brag on their players. The season is long with lots of ups and downs, corrective coaching, and even some butt chewing’s along the way. I know it does a lot for those young men to know that at the end of the day, when the Friday Night Lights go out, their coaches love them and have so much good to say about them.

I had a thought, and I hope this doesn’t seem irreverent to the Lord by comparing Him to a coach because I don’t mean it that way. But as I listened to coaches brag on players I thought about an encouraging verse in the Bible:

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. – Zephaniah 3:17

I bet some of those players hearing a coach speak about them were kinda surprised by how much their coach loved of them and had so many nice things to say. Same is true for us and God. But by faith in Christ, He really does delight in us. He quiets us with His love. He’s glad we’re His. Like a proud coach, He sings over us.

I know God is way more than a coach. But He’s not less. In one sense all of life is a competition to maximize all that we have for the glory of God. As we do that, we need to remember that we’re not earning His favor. He’s already glad we’re His. In spite of our many flaws and failures, He’s glad to have us on His team.

🏈 ✝️

📷: OurGunter