Becoming a Champion!
My prayer for you today is that whenever you get knocked down – Get right back up – for You are made to be a Champion!
That was the advice my boxing coach gave me when I was a kid in the fifth grade in New Jersey and started training to fight in the ring. (The photo are my boxing gloves when I fought as an adult).
My coach, George Eberly, told me, “Now son, you are going to get knocked down and you’re going to get hurt – so let me give you some advice as your coach…
Get used to it! When you get knocked down, get up as soon as you can. When you get hurt, just keep fighting.”
I remember writing that down and taping it to my bedroom wall… so every time I got hurt or knocked down, I remembered Coach Eberly’s words. And the more I got up – the better and stronger I got!
I began to win championships in 5th and 6th grade in PAL (Police Athletic League), then I won Golden Gloves Championships in 7th and 8th grade, and went on to win heavy weight championships in my Junior and Senior years of High School in AAU where I could fight guys in their 20s.
The right words, by the right coach, at the right time – inspired me to win.
But to continue, I would need to commit my life to Jesus Christ - and seek his help.
Historians say the Apostle Paul was interested in boxing matches and he certainly had many personal life-threatening experiences. He wrote, “We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed …
That is why we never give up…
We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you…
Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day…
For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. They produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
So, we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.
For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. (2 Cor. 4:9 - 18 NLT)
When you get knocked down, listen to the Word of God and Coach Jesus - get right back up – get back in the match for God is with you to make you an overcoming Champion!
See you on the battlefield!
John P. Kelly