I Want You to Win!

One of my favorite scenes in all of “moviedom” is from Rocky II.  Rocky has the rematch with Apollo Creed but his heart is not in the training.  While at the bedside of his wife, Adrienne says there is one thing she wants Rocky to do for her…”Win…I want you to win”.  And with those words the music picks up and we see Rocky training hard and ultimately he does win.  Adrienne’s encouragement to win the fight is what Rocky needed.

As followers of Jesus we are also in a fight.  Followers of Jesus have always been in a fight; not with fists and feet but a fight of faith against the devil and the forces of darkness.  Jude wrote about this.  In Jude 3 we read, “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”  The phrase “contend earnestly” could be translated “struggle” or “fight”.  We are in a fight and my fear is that many of us are not answering the bell.  We are not engaging in the struggle.

Most of us are not going to engage in this fight through the media or on a blog or a debate.  Rather, we engage in the fight each day as we live our lives for Jesus Christ.  As we publicly and privately wage a fight against temptation.  We can win rounds of this fight as we share our faith with those we work with or go to school with.  Sure, we will take a few blows, perhaps even get knocked down, but we need to get into the fight.  Jude, and Adrienne, remind us that God wants us to win!