Chess is my game of choice! It is strategic, requiring a strong sense of direction, and it is very seldom easy. In fact, you become better at chess when you play someone who is better than you. Consequently, the people I play are excellent because I desire to be excellent.
Chess is all about the right moves, thereby making the right outcome inevitable. Just like God plans His moves, so do we when we play chess. We look beyond the move in front of us to the ones yet to come, and how well we do this will often determine the outcome of the game.
Everyone in our family of 12 plays chess. Granted the youngest play by their own rules, but they are just as excited as anyone when they see the board come out on the table. I might even say that playing chess has become a generational pastime.
David was trained to be a commander in God’s army. He knew what it was to fight the lion, and the bear. When he came face to face with Goliath he was not only prepared, he knew that it would not stop with this Philistine. Taking out Goliath was the first critical move he had to get right, and all subsequent moves would actually be dependent on that first move. David knew what he had to do and he did it! He was trained in the field, with sheep, to execute this move on the battlefield, with a giant.
A pastor friend taught a sermon many years ago that we are all born into a battle. How successful we are in that battle, and on the battlefield, will be determined by our own understanding of God, and His ways. One might say to understand your enemy you need to get into his head, play the game from his perspective, but for the children of God we know our path is different. We defeat our enemy by knowing God our Conqueror who is always victorious, and we move in unison with Him at all times. When we operate with the mind of Christ we will not be defeated, no not ever!
Proverbs 24:3-4 Wise people are builders—they build families, businesses, communities. And through intelligence and insight their enterprises are established and endure. Because of their skilled leadership the hearts of people are filled with the treasures of wisdom and the pleasures of spiritual wealth.