Handing Off the Ball

THE CONCEPT of rest is a person being able to rely on what God has already done, rather what you must force yourself to do. If a quarterback receives the ball from the center, the defensive line then presses in on him, seeking to sack him behind the line of scrimmage.

But the quarterback will turn if it’s a running play and hand off to the halfback. The halfback takes the ball and goes in the direction of the play call. At this point, the pressure that was coming to the quarterback shifts to the halfback. Originally, the pressure is aimed at the quarterback because he’s got the ball.

But when he hands it off and now everybody’s going after the halfback, the quarterback has rest. He has rest because he’s handed off the pressure to somebody else who’s carrying the ball. We’re so determined to make things happen ourselves that we find ourselves constantly under pressure. God wants us to know that if we can learn to live by faith, we can hand Him the ball and then the enemy has to chase Him.

We can rest. That doesn’t mean that there’s no battle on the field. It just means that we can be in a calm position, even in a tackling situation.