Devotional

The Meek

By Anthony Paradiso

Ready 

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” - Matthew 5:5

Set 

Monday night tie breaker was upon our Lake Nona HS football team.  Three-way district tie against one opponent (East River) who we lost to in overtime by a point two weeks earlier and another (Saint Cloud) who we beat by 34 a week ago.  Lake Nona was the number one seed and we had to wait to see who won the first game.  Ever since the heartbreaking loss in overtime, our players, coaches and especially I took it very hard feeling like we lost the chance at a championship.  I had many conversations with mentors and players as to what God was trying to accomplish in our lives and couldn’t understand why is a group of players who have done everything for others and a group of coaches who have led them in the most spiritual way, suffer such a defeat and not be rewarded for labor.  We had a team meeting prior to playing Saint Cloud and I shared with them something that God put on my heart.  I went on to tell them that God was teaching me to not look at a District Championship and put that first, but he wants us to put Jesus first and let him be in control.  So we took the field doing what we have done all season and just continued to worry about what we can control.   We would win that game and Saint Cloud would go on to beat East River to force the Monday night tie breaker for the championship. 

East River would beat Saint Cloud in the first tie breaker game and force a rematch.  As we took the field for the tie breaker game to compete against East River (the only team we lost to in our district), all I could stress that it’s out of our hands and to go out there and play hard.  The quarter started and it was not looking too good for us as we continued to battle field position.  Our defense was playing lights out and got us the ball back with about 5 minutes left and we were able to put a drive together offensively that ended up stalling with 2 minutes on the clock when we came up 1 inch short on a 4th down play.  East river got the ball back and what seemed to be the doom to us became God’s way of showing this team that he is in control.  We got an interception and returned it down to the twenty yard line.  With a couple of quick runs, we got down in field goal position and used our final time out.  We sent out our kicker to win the game for us and he missed but got hit on the play and a roughing penalty was accessed.   Since the kicker was injured, he had to leave the field.  God proved to me that the meek will inherit the earth as we sent out our back up kicker who is always at practice, never complains, always is smiling and has very little responsibility in our everyday practices.  Deighton would go on to kick the field goal that went under and around four players to barely cross the uprights to win Lake Nona’s first ever District Championship.  On that night of October 31st, 2016, God used the individual with the ultimate attitude and commitment on our team, and gave him the earth or in this case the District Championship game winning Field Goal.

 

Go 
  1. What has God done in your life to show you he is in control?
  2. What are somethings that you need to turnover God and not worry about?
  3. How does a relationship with Jesus help you overcome worry, frustration or fear?
Workout 
  • Proverbs 3:5-6
  • Matthew 19:26