Donald Trump on his show ‘The Apprentice’ has made the term ‘You’re fired!’ a household expression. But it’s a term that has always been pretty common among professional sporting circles, and the last week has been no exception. Pat Quinn the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs – FIRED! Marc Crawford the coach of the Vancouver Canucks – FIRED! Over a period of five days both coaches were removed from the jobs that they had held for seven years. Coaches’ jobs are constantly at risk when their team is not playing up to the expectations of management and they seldom last as long as Quinn and Crawford. You can be ‘Coach of the Year’ one year and fired the next because it’s all about performance and there’s no long term security in this profession.
I’m sure glad that God doesn’t run on the same type of management system. Could you just imagine if you had a bad month and weren’t performing up to God’s expectations, so you were fired and off the team for good? Maybe your thought life wasn’t very good or your language or you didn’t read your Bible all month – after all God’s standard is perfection! We all fall short of God’s standard all the time. Fortunately, God doesn’t judge us by performance but on our relationship to Jesus Christ. Jesus paid the price by giving His life to pay for all our sins so we could be made righteous in God’s sight. Instead of looking at us and seeing failure, He sees the righteousness of Christ. We are not at risk of being kicked off the team with our next poor performance and that should motivate us to live for Him. As a matter of fact, God isn’t trying to get rid of us but He’s always at work in our lives coaching us and helping us to become more like Him. He never gives up on us!
Romans 8:33, 34, 38 & 39 “Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with Himself. Who will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for He is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honour next to God, pleading for us...I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can’t and life can’t. The angels can’t and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We have long term security because management is on our side!
