Sometimes It Just Flows

Sometimes It Just Flows

When the Carolina Panthers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 49–15 to win the 2015 NFC Championship game and return to the Super Bowl, I thought, Sometimes it just flows. The Panthers crushed their opponents throughout the play-offs and found themselves going to the fiftieth Super Bowl having only lost one game all season.

When looking at both the offensive and defensive sides of the football, the Panthers demonstrated that they had the strongest team in the sport. But the Panthers didn’t get there just by luck or happenstance. Their intentional plans for each phase of the game, their disciplined efforts to fix what ailed them, and their development as coaches and players paid huge dividends on the field. I often tell my children that preparation is the work. What happens when you get on the field flows out of that preparation.

Young David, the eventual king of Israel, had a zeal for battle. He knew how to win on the battlefield because he had prepared so diligently when caring for his father’s sheep. First Samuel 17:36-37 records David’s conversation with King Saul. David defended his desire and ability to go to battle with Goliath by stating:

I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! The LORD who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!

I hope that you can have confidence today for the battles that you face because you have prepared yourself. Remember, preparation is the work, and after you have prepared, when you take the field, sometimes it just flows.

I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! The LORD who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!

1 Samuel 17:36-37