Contributor:
Chad Roberts
Whichever team won that day would most likely play for the National Title. Most of the country bet on the Miami Hurricanes that weekend because they were the bigger and better team. They had already won National Titles and odds were, they were going to win the 1988 Title as well.
It was the 3rd season for the new Head Coach of the Irish and he had finally turned the program around after two difficult seasons. Notre Dame was 11 – 0 with Miami coming to South Bend for the final game of the season. The stakes could not have been higher.
Add to the drama of the day a short scuffle between the two teams as they were taking the field of play at the beginning of the game. The refs sent both schools back to their locker rooms to cool down.
Coach Holtz gathered his team and told them that if they were going to fight the Hurricanes it better be on the football field because the country was watching and they represented the university. He told his team, “Today our game plan is this…don’t flinch. If anyone is going to flinch today, it will be the Miami Hurricanes.”
Looking back, his players today say that they won that game in that moment before the first down was snapped. The Irish was poised and they were not going to back down from the bigger, stronger Miami Hurricanes.
Times of Testing
There are times that Satan tries to intimidate us. Of course he is stronger than we are. He has been around far longer and knows how to test, tempt and try believers. But as I watched the powerful, 30 for 30 ESPN documentary on the game between the Fighting Irish and the Hurricanes, I could not help but feel the Lord telling me, “Don’t Flinch, Chad.”
Currently, I am in a season of testing. Satan is attacking me with all that he has. He would try to scare me. He would try to intimidate me. If someone were betting, he would be the better bet so it would seem.
But when you and I go into the locker room with the Lord and we get into His game book, the Bible tells us how we should think as believers. 1 John 4:4 says, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Do you see how God wants us to think? Greater is the Holy Spirit within us than Satan!
I am not strong enough within my own flesh and strength. But the point of grace is that I do not have be strong enough on my own. The Lord will work His Spirit and His grace within me. Because we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, infilling us and empowering us we should not fear what Satan would try to do against us.
Removing Fear
If you are someone that fears Satan’s power or his plans, allow me to encourage you with 2 Timothy 1:7. “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” Can you see why God would not have us fear our enemy? He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self control.
Allow the Lord to work in you and through you. When Satan comes against you, do not try to handle him in your own strength. Instead, look to the Lord and rely on His grace and His power. Like the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, we will find the Lord saying to us, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
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