A Champion’s Team (Day 8)
Every champion has a team. Throughout your championship you will meet many people who claim to be for you, some of them would mean it, some of them would think they mean it until someone or something else comes along and some won’t mean it all. The champions of old faced this reality as well and so you can be sure that this will also be a part of your championship for Christ. But the beauty of it is that regardless of what kind of supporters surround you they all play a part in your victory. So who is on your team?
1. Those who are for you
Before you even enter the championship there are those who will see the champion in you, those who will see the winner before the win. These are the people who will push you to find your cause and be your best. They may often times be the persons you least expect. The interesting thing about those who are truly for you, is that they never seem to want to share the spotlight with you, sometimes they operate behind the scenes, praying for you, covering you, supporting you as silent sponsors and never expecting anything in return. For a lot of you, your silent supporters may be your family but they can also be mentors, neighbours, friends, that old prayer warrior at your church who saw something in you before you even saw it in yourself. You can never predict who would be for you but once they are, you will have a valuable addition to your team.
There are those who are for you because they love you and want what’s best for you
There are those who are for you because God has revealed to them something about you and has shown them the part they are to play.
But one thing is for sure, those who are for you show it in the way that they:
- Pray for you
- Guide, disciple and look out for you
- Help meet your needs
- Correct you, draw your attention to your mistakes so you don’t make them again
- Help open your eyes to your potential and to those who are for you
- Demand your best
- Put themselves on the line for you
- Believe that you’ve got what it takes
But don’t assume that that means you will like them. At times it may feel like they are intruding, like they do not like you, like they are being hard on you. At times it may feel like their attention is too much, or they aren’t attentive to you enough. It’s the same way we might curse the sun for coming up when all we want to do is sleep, or going down when we haven’t had enough of the day. But when you have someone who is genuinely for you, you can trust that they are just playing their part in getting you to be successful, oftentimes in the best way they know how and sometimes those best ways aren’t perfect ways. But trust me, it’s better than the alternative….
2. Those who think they are for you
Those who see the win before the winner are often unwilling to stick it out during the rough patches of the championship. Throughout your life you will encounter people who will stand by you only to disappoint you. These are the people who do not fully understand you nor themselves. These are the people who see the finish line but aren’t too keen on being a part of the journey and so the moment you falter, show weakness, disappoint them or someone else comes along who shows more promise they let you go and move on. These are the people who may not necessarily have anything to offer you but are eager to see what it is you have to give. Job was a champion of old who learned this the hardest way anyone could. He went through an experience that cost him everything, those who he thought would’ve supported him abandoned him and accused him and gave him terrible advice. Yet when he was up, they were all there, sharing in his prosperity. I imagine Job’s wife was proud to call him her husband when he was at the peak of his game. She would probably walk around the city with her head lifted high, telling all the women that the handsome, rich, God-fearing man at the gate was her man. I imagine that during that prosperous part of their marriage she believed that she would stick with him through thick and thin. But then God tested Job and He let everything be taken away from him. He became a sickly shadow of the great man he used to be and the wife who must have at one time thought of herself as his number one supporter told him to “curse God and die!”.
During the course of this championship you may lose some battles. You may make a mistake that may bring shame to your supporters and guess what? Those who think they are for you are going to show whether they are for the winner or the win. You may be such a nice young man or woman when you do everything right but the moment you fail you may be surprised to find your name scratched off the prayer list. When those who are truly for you will only raise your priority level. What’s important however, is that in those moments, when you feel abandoned, that you never forget you have a number one supporter who never turns His back on you. Job understood this, so that even when he felt like he had no one on his team he didn’t turn his back on God and his cause to honour Him. And of course there’s the most dangerous of them all…
3. Those who pretend to be for you (but never were)
Yes, there are going to be people on your team who aren’t really on your team. Counterfeits, spies, sleeper cells, whatever you want to call
them, they will come. Especially when you show yourself to be a worthy contender. These people can be in your church, they can be in your family, they can be in your circle of friends, but one thing is for sure; if they are there, God has allowed them to be there for a purpose. Judas. Yes Judas the betrayer, he was a part of Jesus’ team and he played an active part in the work that Jesus did for those three years. But from the beginning Jesus knew that Judas was more for himself than he was for Jesus and that he would be the tool that God would use to fulfill his plan. People are going to come into your life and join your team for what they can get and for what damage they can do. This is a reality but the beauty of it, is that the more of these you get, the more you know that you are making good progress in this championship of faith. And in their own special (dangerous) way, they are a vital part of your team. They are the ones who will truly test you, truly prepare you for the task at hand, truly strengthen your faith and dependence on God. Sometimes you have to let the weed grow with the crops, it might not seem that way, but their presence may very well be vital to the crops ability to last.
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
So whether you are deliberate in building a team or it just divinely happens to grow around you, it’s important that you remember that you can’t do it all alone. A champion has a team, some are ‘ride or die’, some are just in for a ride and some are just there for a time. Ask God to help you decipher your team because you can always depend on Him as your number one supporter to sort those things out for you.
Be a blessing,
KellyP
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Kelly is the founder of Royalty Press United. Author of the Gemstone Royals fantasy series, Twist of Faith and Crossroads. Counseling psychologist, proud Grenadian and devoted follower of Christ.
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