I love basketball, and I love to play the game. You might even call me a basketball player. But is my skill such that I could play in the NBA? Hardly. The skills required to play the game and the skills required to play in the NBA are on totally different levels. Knowing God and walking in freedom are also on different levels. Our freedom can only rise to the NBA level as we practice being who he says we are.
One young basketball player neared the point of rage with himself as he once again missed what would have been the game-winning free throw. He hated the feeling of failure —the feeling of knowing he had disappointed his teammates, let his coach down, and snatched defeat right out of the jaws of victory! This young man overflowed with natural talent and had been endowed with a sixth sense for basketball. To look at him you would think, This kid is unstoppable. He can write his own ticket.
He knew all the right things to do. Hadn't the coach told him and told him time after time? "Take a deep breath. Rest the ball in the palm of your right hand. Guide the ball with your left hand. Let the ball roll from your fingertips and follow completely through in one fluid motion." Yet he continued to fall back into his old playing habits. Sensing his son's frustration and not wanting him to give up, the young man's father took him aside as the dejected home crowd slowly filed out of the gymnasium. "Son, I know you know this: You have been blessed with an amazing talent. But until you follow your coach's instruction, you will never realize your fullest potential --you will never be what you have been gifted to be."
The boy's heart had been broken. "Dad, what can I do? I really want to change. I just don't know how." The crowd was all gone now. The boy and his father were left standing at the free-throw line. "Son, explain to me the proper technique of shooting a free shot." The boy spoke all the right words and even pantomimed the technique for his dad. “Now, son, pick up the ball and show me the proper form for shooting a free shot." The boy threw the ball- and missed!
"Don't you see, son? You say all the right things, but you don't do all the right things. Until you can put off your bad habits and put on the good ones, you'll be just another basketball ‘wannabe.' Is that what you really ‘wannabe' ?"
From that night on, the boy diligently practiced his technique… in front of his coach… in front of his dad… even in front of the bathroom mirror! Soon, the old habits became so distant in his memory and the new habits brought such success that it was as if he had never struggled to shoot a free throw in his life. He was soon given another opportunity to win a game at the free-throw line. And the ball went in! There would be other times as well. Some he won. Some he didn't. But in putting off the old and putting on the new, he was never again haunted by failure because failing only reminded him to go back to the basics and rest in what he knew was right.
True freedom will only bloom in your life when you put on the truth of who God says you are. Knowing who God wants you to be is not the same as practicing who he wants you to be. When life gets complicated and failures abound, turn your heart and mind back to the basics. Remember who you are in Christ, practice being who God says you are, and in time, you'll be walking in the NBA hall of freedom.
MEDITATION
What of the old you was washed away?
What can you do to help the maturing/growth process of your identity along?
Are there any old habits you need to take off?
What truths do you need to put on in their place?
Do you feel truly free in Christ?
TRUTHS FOR MEDITATION
Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. -Romans 13:14
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. --1 Corinthians 15:53-58
You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. -Ephesians 4:20--24
Allow the Lord to show you areas where you have not taken off the old. Then receive the new and put it on in the place of the old.
Dennis Jernigan
Photo courtesy of https://pixabay.com/images/download/x-5083097_1920.jpg