I felt the Lord whisper to my heart: “My church is a bunch of nice losers. They lay their hands on the sick and pray for them, but when they die, they aren’t mad at all. They don’t check themselves out to see what happened or what went wrong with their prayers and actions. They accept defeats and don’t think anymore about them.
“Now, Major League baseball teams are all filled with good players. Each player has to be one of the best in the world to make it to the Major Leagues. Losing teams have good players on their rosters, too. But after a while, losing teams’ players don’t mind losing because after all, they still receive their Major League paychecks and bonuses.
“But winning Major League baseball teams are different. They hate losing and will do anything and whatever it takes to win. They hate losing.
“I want My church to hate losing!”
This time the grief, which hit me, measured a ten on the Richter Scale. It was so bad my sister leaned toward me.
“Don’t you think you should go outside and get a hold of yourself,” she whispered.
If I had attempted to move, I would have fallen on the floor. Everything would have erupted out of me, making a bad situation much worse than it was. The grief lifted after a few minutes, but I sat on pins and needles for the rest of the funeral service.
(Excerpt from my memoir, The Hunt for Larry Who by Larry Nevenhoven, ©2014, Amazon eBook)
My prayer today:
Lord, help us American believers to do all things for the sake of the Gospel so we may partake of its blessings. Help us to run the race with purpose in every step and to fight, not as mere shadowboxers who only beat the air. Show us how to win and to hate losing. (Based on 1 Corinthians 9:23-26)
What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?
Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for America.
Larry Who 
What comes to my mind after reading, “My church is a bunch of nice losers” is that Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by FORCE.” Sounds like a pretty intense major league game to me. But then we always have to think about how someone could jump on and say the opposite, that we should rest in Him according to Hebrews and let God do all the work while we just believe Him. So . . . .
Lift the Cross of Jesus,
Good points. But to be honest, I have never met a believer who was truly “resting” in the Lord who had not fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith during a spiritual battle to arrive at the place of rest in the Lord.
I know there will be those who will say that He fights our battles for us, but who do you think the Lord uses as His weapon? He uses us as His sword and even as a battle axe (Jer. 51:20)…and all this may be done in the quiet of our prayer closets.
Thank you, Mr. Larry , for teaching us and leading us in prayer, from your own experiences! God bless you!
Debbie,
Thanks. God bless you.