Building your Spirit Squad

March Madness has taken hold of me!  I watch my bracket closely on game days, regularly refreshing my Internet browser to catch the latest scores.  At work, I gather with my fellow "bracketeers" in front of the break room fridge to review our brackets and the standings... and offer some friendly trash talk. I don't even like to watch basketball, but cheering for my team to beat my cubicle mate's team is way more fun than I could have imagined!  Cheerleaders play a vital role in building moral, encouraging and praising success, and spreading spirit among the crowd.

This analogy can be applied to your spiritual life as well.  You can go to church and spend your Sundays and Wednesdays worshiping.  You can read your Bible and do daily devotionals.  You can even blog about your faith!  But it's a whole new ball game when you have a family of spiritual [cheer]leaders and fellow disciples (players) joining you on your journey to the finals. 

If you are struggling as you build your faith or struggling just to find your faith, begin by building yourself up with a spirit squad of disciples.  Disciples will help you with the sin in your life and help keep you on your "A game".  Disciples will keep you sharp by encouraging you to hone your skills on (at church) and off the court (reading your Bible at home, praying, doing devotionals, spending time with God, spending time with other disciples, sharing your faith, etc.).

Ephesians 4:16 [NIV]

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

20/20 Faithfulness

Matthew 6:34 [NIV]

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own"

I am an anxious person.  I worry too much about things beyond my control and the stress I burden myself with is not healthy.  Do you ever worry about ridiculous things happening?  Do you have trouble falling asleep at night because you can't clear your mind?  Regardless of finding our church, getting baptized and becoming disciples, I still stress.  I suffer from "nearsighted faithlessness".  

2 Kings 6:15-17 [NIV]

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city.  "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked. "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered.  "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."  And Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes so he may see."  Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

I had a revelation this morning about my anxiety and stress filled life.  Not only do I worry about thing beyond my control or the "unknown", but I also worry about the stress already in my life.  Our finances.  Our son.  My health.  My schooling.  My job.  The list goes on.  The common saying that came to mind this morning was that "God never gives us more than we can handle".  The idea is that God is watching over us and doesn't burden us with more than He knows we can deal with.

However, I have a whole new outlook on this.  I think God gives us just a bit MORE than He knows we can handle.  For those of us who are strong in our faith, we will turn to Him in these times of worry.  When we feel like we couldn't possibly handle what He has put before us, we pray and give up our stress and worry to Him.  This 20/20 faithfulness allows His followers to then be a lamp post for everyone else who is also struggling and don't know where to turn.

So when the going gets tough, get God and get on with your life.