Have you ever played with someone who made you more confident just because they were on your team?
Paige Buekers plays basketball for the University of Connecticut. She was the number 1 player in the country in high school and won the National Player of the Year award as a freshman. She is a great basketball player, and by all accounts, a great person.
But like many athletes, Paige has had to battle through injuries. Early in her sophomore season, Paige missed over 2 months of the season because of a knee injury. During that time, UConn's women's basketball team, one of the most dominant teams in the sport over the last 20 years, dropped out of the top-10 rankings for the first time in 17 years.
Their head coach, Geno Auriemma, said, "When we lost her, a lot of other players really felt that loss hard because it puts so much on their shoulders. They began to understand just how much Paige does for them."
He then said, "She gives them confidence. Teams' confidence sometimes wavers; it goes up and down. But if you have somebody like Paige on the floor whose confidence never wavers, it is infectious and the rest of the team knows there won't be any droughts."
Last week, I wrote about how Moses was given the 10 commandments after leading the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses spent over 3 months leading the Israelites through the desert and wilderness when they came to Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai, God gave Moses the 10 commandments. Moses spent 40 days and 40 nights at the top of Mount Sinai, and while he was up there, the Israelites grew restless and asked Moses’s brother, Aaron, to make a statue for them to worship like they had in Egypt. Aaron gathered all their gold and made a golden calf statue. The Israelites worshipped the golden calf and offered sacrifices. They even said the golden calf, not the Lord, freed them from Egypt.
God then sent Moses back down off the mountain and back to the Israelites and said, “I have seen these people, and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
Moses pleaded for God to save the Israelites, and the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way (Exodus 33:1-3).”
Moses then said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
God created us in order to have fellowship with us. He wanted to have fellowship with us and have something He could be present with.
Like a great teammate, He is always with us. He wants to be present with us and give us love, joy, and peace. He wants to give us rest. All we have to do is ask for it, pray for it, believe in it, and do our best to obey Him.
THIS WEEK
1 - When do you feel the most at peace?
2 - When do you feel the least at peace? 3 - When you don't feel at peace, what do you do/can you do to find peace?
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