Spiritual Gains: Surrendering to the Ultimate Spotter

When I was a college basketball player, when we tested our bench press in the summer of my freshman year, my max (on my own) was 205. By the end of the fall, when we retested, my max skyrocketed to 285! That's not natural, but I knew that I had put in hard work all summer and fall, so I patted myself on the back and celebrated my accomplishment.

That was, until the older players put me on game that the massive gain in my max was not my strength. They explained, "My boy, you put in work all summer, but even still, it ain't no way you could go from maxing just 205 and jump in a few months to 285!" They further explained that our strength coach, Gary, does that by design. They pointed out that he was nowhere near as involved in our spot during pre-testing. But during post-testing, he was pretty much doing an arm curl to get the weight that would otherwise have crushed us off of our chest.

Since that was the case, while we would have liked to think we were much stronger than we were, we had to humble ourselves and realize that no matter how much we tried, it wasn't no way that we could lift such heavy weight, but as long as Gary was spotting, he was actually doing the heavy lifting. While that burst my bubble as an athlete, as I live life, I was humbled long ago to know, the person that I desire to be for God, it ain't no way I could become him in my own strength, but as long as God does the lifting, sin's guilt that should crush me, instead, loses its grip on me!

*TPT - Proverbs 16:6 - You can avoid evil through surrendered worship and the fear of God, for the power of his faithful love removes sin's guilt and grip over you.*

*Psalm 34:8 - New Living Translation - Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!*

Matthew 19:26 - NLT  - Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”

And 1 (Deep Dive Questions):

It's through you allowing God to influence you and change for the better, in the ways you desire but don't think you could ever be changed, that He delivers you. In a sense, He does the heavy lifting, you just have to allow Him to. That said, where in your life do you get an A for your effort, but even in your best effort are you falling short and giving into sin?

Digest this quote and write down how it hits you as it relates to this devotional: "There are two types of people in this world, those that are humble, and those that are about to be." God's influence will gently humble you in private, or minus His influence, you will be humbled publicly and risk fumbling the bag.

Can you recall a time when you thought you had made significant progress on your own, only to realize later that God was doing the heavy lifting?

Has there ever been a time when you continued to live in a sinful way because you did not know or believe God's word enough to know that He would be your over-involved spotter, so you did not have to be strong enough to overcome your sinful behavior, instead you just had to surrender to Him?

How does the idea of God as your “over- involved spotter" change your approach to overcoming challenges in your life?

In what areas of your life do you find it hardest to surrender control and let God do the heavy lifting?

How can you practice humility daily to stay open to God's influence and avoid being "humbled publicly"?