…we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. (1 Corinthians 2:13, NLT)
I write this devotional with one significant disadvantage to you as the reader and potentially one great advantage. My disadvantage is that I am writing about events of the 2015 Open Championship on the morning of the first round, and do not have the knowledge that you do of the outcome of the tournament. However, I have some thoughts right now that are pertinent to all of our lives regardless of who was named Champion Golfer of the Year.
On Wednesday, before the start of play as everyone is focusing on and hyping up Jordan Spieth, Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee emphatically picked Dustin Johnson to win this year’s championship. Not only that, but he also said “without a doubt” Johnson will be a Hall of Famer. This of course comes fresh off the dreadful three-putt on the 72nd hole to lose the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay and even keeping in mind several other final round mishaps at majors for Johnson.
I love it! Not just because as I’m writing this he has walked off the eighteenth green with a first round 65 atop the leaderboard, but because I am reminded that I heard and witnessed the truth about Dustin Johnson. Yes, it is “true” that Dustin has failed to close majors in the past, but it is not the truth about him. The truth is that he has everything he needs to be great and there is nothing to get in the way of this amazingly gifted golfer other than if he believes what he hears from critics and fails to realize the truth about who he actually is.
So what is the truth about you?
Well, I told you in the opening sentence that I also have an advantage as I write this. My advantage is that it has been made known to me the truth about those of us that have been made new creations in Christ. The truth is that Jesus made us victorious over all sin when he went to the cross for us, and he does not see me or you like our critics do or as our negative self-talk does. The negativity of the events of our past (or how we see our current situation) is not the truth about who we are as new creations. When you received Christ you were made new, an amazingly gifted creation, gifted with the same Spirit as Christ. Do you ever hear that truth?
God has been teaching me through his truthful words (John 8:32, 17:13-19; Galatians 2:20-21; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; 1 John 2:8-14) that the only thing holding me back from living victoriously now is me and what I believe to be the truth about me. God’s Word tells me that I am a product of victory in the kingdom of God, but the devil wants me to believe that I am a failure. Not anymore! I am a future Hall of Famer!
Did you know that Jesus died for all the negativity in your life? All your fear, doubt, worry, depression, anger, and other failures have already been conquered—and he wants it all. Stop hanging on to it. After all, he went to the cross for all of those things.
—
Josh Nelson
July 22, 2015
Copyright 2015 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.