And man, the Saints, they had so much love last year. Everyone was cheering for them to win. Everyone wanted the victory to be theirs. They were the cinderella story, the team that had not won a Super Bowl and who came from seemingly nowhere to be a dominant force.
EVERYONE was a fan. EVERYONE was loving them. I have a question though.
My question is, will people love the Saints when they are terrible?
You may love a certain team. You may talk about them endlessly. But the question, again, is will you love them when they are terrible?
Man, it is SO easy to love a team when they are rockin' it. It's so easy to talk about all the great things that are happening.
In the same way, it's easy to praise God when things are good. It's easy to talk about all the great things He is doing.
My question is this: Can you praise God when things are not good?
You see, we have the power of revealing God's glory in the midst of struggles. We have the opportunity to point to the one true Light that is seeking to carry us and restore us.
In your weakness, His strength is perfected.
In your hard times, His victory can take place.
Why does all of this happen? Why do we even have to deal with this?
Because God has found us faithful to suffer in this way. See, we have to be people who can live out what we're talking about. You'll either walk it out or you will not.
But know this, know that a world is watching. A world is watching to see how you will respond.
I love the story of Job. He loses EVERYTHING. Literally, everything. All of his wealth, his possessions, his family, it's all wiped away. And how does he respond? Man, check this out.
He falls to the ground and worships. HE WORSHIPS! Can you believe that? That with everything going on, he can't help but to worship God?
See, our struggles, our problems, they are an opportunity. People will come to you and they will say, "I have no idea how you made it through this."
They'll ask, "After everything, how in the world did you survive? How in the world did you make it?"
That's your opportunity to point to God. God has found you faithful to struggle in this way, to suffer in this way.
We easily love God when times are fresh.
How will we respond when we are pushed to our limits?
