Believe to Win
Something happened to the Vineyard softball team last night. It started out that the other team scored only 2 runs. Our thinking: “ok, not bad; it is only 2-0.” Then we scored 2! Our thinking: “well this is different; we tied the score.” Jay caught a couple of line drives & later on we went up 6-4. You could see the minds churning behind the surprised eyes: “we’re actually winning.” In one critical inning, there were players on base; you could almost hear the thoughts, “here we go again.” 
The batter hit a screaming line drive to right center field that was arching away from Billy Murray. Billy took a lunging stab and caught the ball! The team turned a corner: “we began to believe that we could win the game.” Even though our score fell short at the end (10-13), we won a huge victory in our hearts. There were cheers, optimism, fun, hustle, and unity. We believe we can win together.
A key milestone in our journey with Jesus is to begin to believe that we can win…we can, through His strength, overcome (remember Sunday’s message- Philippians 4:13&19!) The “opposition” points out every time that we have made an error, struck out, or lost.
Jesus asks, “do you believe?” One man answered, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” As we come to freedom Sunday, asking God to release us and bring generational healing, we believe that “whom the Son sets free is free indeed!” (John 8.36)