Two Minute Drills from Coach Joe Gibbs

[Judy Harder]

September 12, 2011     


Two Minute Drills from Coach Joe Gibbs
     
Always and Never

Very few things in life are "always" and "never." Your wife doesn't always tell you how to drive. Your pastor isn't always asking for money. It's not like your kids never do a thing you say. But when it comes to God, there are some always and nevers you can take to the bank.

He is "always at his work" (John 5:17), never dozing off or growing tired of meeting your needs. He is "always righteous" (Jeremiah 12:1), never changing to accommodate the times. Jesus "always lives" to pray for you (Hebrews 7:25), to continually insure that your sins are forgiven, if you've trusted Him for salvation. He is a rock of refuge to which you can "always go" (Psalm 71:3).

He will "never stop doing good" to you (Jeremiah 32:40), always supplying you with all you really need. He tells us not to worry about money or the future, because He has promised, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). His years "will never end" (Hebrews 1:12). He has "set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed" (Daniel 2:44). "Heaven and earth will pass away," Jesus said, "but my words will never pass away" (Luke 21:33).

Life may seem a tangled mess of empty words and broken promises. But when your trust is in God, you're on the most solid footing of all. Blessed is the man who "always fears the Lord" (Proverbs 28:14).

Pray this prayer: Lord, I always want to be your man, even though I miss the mark in many ways. I know with you, though, that you will always be my God, forever and ever.

Please visit Joe Gibbs' Website at www.GamePlanForLife.com for Joe's Video Blog and more!

[Judy Harder]

September 19, 2011    Two Minute Drills from Coach Joe Gibbs
     
All-Weather Blessings

These are tough economic times all around. The same rules and assumptions that used to be part of the wall paint of life don't seem to apply any more. Housing values don't just automatically go up. The next stop on the Dow Jones index may not be a thousand more, perhaps a thousand less. Dividends that used to pay like clockwork may now be calculated at pennies on the share, if at all.

So when we open our Bibles and read, "Blessed is he who has regard for the weak," the poor, the helpless (Psalm 41:1), our minds almost immediately begin thinking up disqualifiers. Sure, if we had the money. Sure, if milk and gasoline weren't so expensive. Sure, if our 401(k) was still promising us an ample retirement.

But the Bible's principles for sound money management are not dependent on the ebbs and flows of the stock market. Just because prices are up and wages are down, biblical truth is not temporarily suspended. Lean years don't exempt us from pursuing God's way of doing things. In fact, it's in times like these—when real need is a lot closer to your front door than it may have seemed in days past—that the blessing of giving is actually the greatest. Your generous, sacrificial acts of service and care in Christ's name have more potential for touching hearts now than they ever did. You can take that to the bank.

Pray this prayer: Father, I get worried sometimes about where our financial picture is heading. But you have called us to be much more concerned for people than money. Help me to always keep this in mind.

Please visit Joe Gibbs' Website at www.GamePlanForLife.com for Joe's Video Blog and more!

[Judy Harder]

September 26, 2011    Two Minute Drills from Coach Joe Gibbs
     
Sin Exchange

The battle against sexual lust is sort of in a class by itself for most men. Other allures and temptations may buzz around us, but few if any can stir up this kind of struggle, shame, and enslavement. It can make us want things that seem irresistible. Yet in turning away, we find things that are irreplaceable.

Pure living, for example, means exchanging deception for truth, darkness for light—the freedom to uncomplicate our lives with the worry of being found out, to avoid the awkward moment when we think someone has noticed our up-and-down glance.

We exchange a heart that judges by appearances for one that values the worth of every individual. We get to know people without filtering our acceptance of them through the grid of their good looks, enjoying the honesty of being kind to everyone we meet.

We exchange self-gratification for the pursuit of service, transforming our inner thirst for adventure into profitable use. Rather than thinking of ways to feed our misplaced desire, we become equally as passionate about thinking of ways to bless our wives and family.

"Each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God" (1 Thessalonians 4:4-5) . . . who do not know that something much better exists for those walk in purity.

Pray this prayer: Father, I'm sick and tired of being consumed by thoughts of other women. I pray for a pure heart, a healed heart, a will that totally releases this impossible struggle into your strong hands.

Please visit Joe Gibbs' Website at www.GamePlanForLife.com for Joe's Video Blog and more!

 

[Judy Harder]

October 03, 2011    Two Minute Drills from Coach Joe Gibbs
     
Suitable for All Ages

You may not think you know much about God, or the Bible, or the best way to explain the finer points of Christian doctrine. But if you still have children at home, you can be pretty sure they don't know as much as you do. And they could learn a lot more than you think if you'd just start the conversation.

Granted, trying to instruct our children in the ways and teachings of God is not easy for a lot of us. It can be awkward. It's not usually a popular alternative to the video game they were playing or the friend they were texting. We fear the risk of being boring, or bumping up against a question we don't know the answer to.

But you'd be surprised how inherently powerful the Bible is, all by itself. The consistent practice of reading the Scripture aloud with everyone together in one room will leave marks and memories on your children that will travel well as they grow. You'd even be surprised by the thoughts God gives you as you read—things you can share on the spot about your experiences with life, no other textbooks required.

Even with all our qualms and excuses, the Bible challenges us not to hide His Word from our children. "Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands" (Psalm 78:7). Even if you're a little fuzzy on this stuff, you've got to love a promise like that.

Pray this prayer: Lord, I don't really even know where to begin in teaching my children about you and your Word. But I will be faithful to try. Help to realize that this is my responsibility.

[Judy Harder]

October 10, 2011    Two Minute Drills from Coach Joe Gibbs
     
The Company You Keep

Our moms and dads could be pretty picky about the kinds of friends we hung around with. They understood it doesn't always take much persuasion, even for the best of kids, to turn innocent fun into risky behavior. Being with the right people, they knew, makes peer pressure a good thing.

But peer pressure isn't something that automatically ends when we take on adult responsibilities. Just because we're not teenage boys being dared to drive too fast or stay out too late, that doesn't mean we're not influenced by the grown-up friends we keep. People we go hunting with and meet for lunch can still hold significant weight on what we do, think, and say, and what we consider to be normal.

That's why we need friends who make us want to be more like Jesus. Men who have deep convictions and compassionate hearts. Men who don't have a church side and a public side. Men who love their wives and invest in their kids. Men who make us want to be even more sold-out and godly, not the kind who convince us, whether out loud or by a certain look, that we're taking this Christian life too seriously.

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another," the Bible says (Proverbs 27:17). If peer pressure is something we can expect to have around for a long time, we'd better be sure we've got some guys around us who help us want to become everything we ought to be.

Pray this prayer: Father, I'm thankful for the friends of mine who bring out the best in me. And for those who don't, would you give me the courage to cut back on the time I spend with them?

[Judy Harder]

October 17, 2011 Two Minute Drills from Coach Joe Gibbs
     
The Enemy Within

Dr. Larimore, writing in Game Plan for Life, talks about the "Four Wheels of Health"—physical, emotional, relational, spiritual. A fully healthy person is one who is consistently, continually achieving balance in each of these areas. If any of the four loses air or goes flat, the whole thing begins to weave and wobble.

But here's the deal. While it makes so much sense to hear him tell it, there is a big part of us that resists being healthy. Just knowing the value of green, leafy vegetables and cardiovascular exercise doesn't ensure we'll go after them. Just being aware that honesty and openness are essential to becoming authentic people is not enough to make us live it out. "Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning" (Psalm 64:6). We cannot trust even ourselves to look out for our own best interests.

That's why it is so important that our lives be centered and grounded in God. He alone is rock-steady in a world that can't help but feel uncertain, as well as in hearts that can't always seem to follow what our heads are telling them. "If we are faithless, he will remain faithful" (2 Timothy 2:13). He is our one-and-only hope of being and staying as healthy as we want to be.

Pray this prayer: Lord God, you've found me out. I'm inconsistent at best and self-destructive at worst.  I truly desire to be a whole and healthy man, but I realize that I can't do it without you. Please help me.

[Judy Harder]

Monday, October 24, 2011    Two Minute Drills from Coach Joe Gibbs
     
A Promising Future

There are many hundreds of methods out there for maximizing your potential in life, in business, in all kinds of areas. Some are sound, some are not, some are absolutely wonderful (like Game Plan for Life, of course). But even the best can't help but be incomplete in spots. And none of us are able to follow them perfectly, even then.

So while we are wise to gather information and set our goals, to make our plans and chart our progress, we will meet days when not everything comes together. We will encounter challenges that weren't covered in the literature. We will feel the need to make adjustments and wonder why we hadn't noticed this sooner.

But that's okay—because our trust is not in methods and strategies. Though we are certainly responsible for how we handle ourselves, we are not in total charge of where our future is headed. It is no cop-out, after listening and learning and being diligent to pursue best practices, to say, "I cry out to God Most High, who fulfills his purpose for me" (Psalm 57:2).

Any success plan that isn't submitted to God is destined for failure. Any man who thinks he can make it on his own hunches will find out otherwise, the hard way. But when we trust God to do his work in us, he can take even our missteps and turn them into positive gain. He will fulfill his purpose for you.

Pray this prayer: Lord, I worry too much. I push myself hard, but it still leaves so much that seems undone. I need to rest in the knowledge that you are more than capable of accomplishing your will in me.

[Judy Harder]

Two Minute Drills from Coach Joe Gibbs
     
Enemy Sightings

If you struggle with an addiction—be it substance abuse, or pornography, or gambling, or whatever—you certainly know by now that making a turnaround is not something that happens overnight. It takes a true change of heart and usually a good long time. Nothing easy about it.

But one of the changes that needs to occur is your ability to see these temptations for what they really are. The rush that draws you to want a drug or a drink or a wide-eyed drive on the Internet is not coming from a friendly camp. Yes, these alluring appeals show up with claims of sweet relief. They feel like something you want and need. But actually, they are more like an "arrow that flies by day," like a "pestilence that stalks in the darkness," like a "plague that destroys at midday" (Psalm 91:5-6). Whenever they show up—morning, noon, and night, or all of the above—they are hired killers. They are sent to destroy.

Read all sixteen verses of Psalm 91 with this kind of focus and mind-set. See if you don't spot some new names, accounts, and descriptions of what your battle is like every day. And see if you don't find hope in the powerful protection of your Lord and Savior, who can enable you to "tread upon the lion and the cobra . . . to trample the great lion and the serpent" (Psalm 91: 13).

Know your enemy. Trust your God. Live your victory.

Pray this prayer: Lord God, expose the teeth and sharp edges of every temptation that comes my way. Help me see them for what they are, and realize that I can only stay safe by stepping out of their path.

Please visit Joe Gibbs' Website at www.GamePlanForLife.com for Joe's Video Blog and more!

[Judy Harder]

November 07, 2011    Two Minute Drills from Coach Joe Gibbs
     
Take a Knee

Some football players, when they break away for a go-ahead score or cause a key third-down sack, want to be sure they get their full ESPN's worth—the dances, the struts, the jerky moves they've been saving up for just such an opportunity.

Then there's the other approach—the guy who rips off a long touchdown run, flips the ball back to the referee, and trots to the sideline without all the show and the secret handshakes. He lives by this code: Don't act like it's the first time you've ever seen the inside of the end zone. Look like you've been there . . . like you never expected to be anywhere else.

When Jesus returns, you can be sure there will be a lot of people doing a lot of tap dancing, trying hard to prove why their occasional big plays should be enough to earn them a spot on his team. But eventually, "every knee" will bow, "in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11). That's when the people who'd already humbled themselves before him on earth will have no hesitation taking a knee and giving him praise in heaven. It'll be like they've been there... like they never expected to be anywhere else. And where they'll be thankful now that there's no more penalty for excessive celebration.

Pray this prayer: Lord, I don't want be someone who only bows to you when they have to. I bow before you today, on this side of heaven. I want to go ahead and start getting good at this.

Please visit Joe Gibbs' Website at www.GamePlanForLife.com for Joe's Video Blog and more!

[Judy Harder]

Two Minute Drills from Coach Joe Gibbs
     
Too Much Information?

It just can't be good that every credit card swipe we make, every phone call, every movement, it seems, is on somebody's computer somewhere. We're always watchful these days for privacy loss and identity theft, running our opened mail down the shredder to keep any more info about us from leaking out. It's even a little suspicious when the grocery sends us a dollar-off coupon for our favorite brand of ketchup, realizing we're only getting this because they know what we've been buying.

What people know about us today can hurt us. What they pull up on their screens can start coming out of our bank accounts. When people all over the world can see our driveway on a Google map, you've got to figure we're not totally safe from a smart intruder.

But even in a context like this, God has no problem admitting he knows your every thought. He knows the number of hairs on your head; knows the hopes and dreams that pulsate in your heart. He's able to "write in the register of the peoples: 'This one was born in Zion'" (Psalm 87:6)—in Charlotte, in Denver, in San Antonio. Everywhere you've been, everywhere you go, he's tracking you.

But not to hurt you. God uses his knowledge to direct your steps, to bring you growth opportunities, to meet very specific needs, to send you help when you're hurting. The more he knows, the better. The more you trust him, the safer you'll be.

Pray this prayer: Lord, I know I can't hide anything from you. But I pray you'll let me see this as a good thing. Knowing I'm constantly on your radar doesn't make me feel watched, just cared for.

Please visit Joe Gibbs' Website at www.GamePlanForLife.com for Joe's Video Blog and more!