Devotional Reading Plan

The Long Game

When I was a kid, my dad taught me to play chess. He has this great old chess set. The board and pieces are carved from hard wood; it’s simple design is really beautiful. And the smell of those old chess pieces... one whiff and I am instantly a child, sitting on the living room floor, playing chess with my dad.

It took a lot of years before I ever beat my dad at chess. In fact, I don’t think I beat him until after I graduated high school. I was always stuck reacting to whatever moves my dad made. Chess is a strategy game, you have to think multiple moves ahead of your opponent if you’re going to win. It’s not a one-move-at-a-time sort of thing. In order to win, you have to play the long game.

One of the interesting things about the book of Daniel is, we know the exact dates of Daniel’s time in exile. In chapter 1, verse 1, we are told that the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem in, “the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign.” Historians know that was the year 605 B.C. And the last verse of the chapter tells us that Daniel served in Babylon until the first year of King Cyrus’ reign. Historians know that as the year 539 B.C.

Daniel and his friends were in Babylon from 605 B.C. - 539 B.C. That’s 66 years!

If Daniel and his friends were going to thrive in exile, they had to play the long game. Just like we don’t know when the quarantine will end, they didn’t know when the exile would end. I’m not saying this quarantine is going to last for 66 years, but if we are going to thrive in it, then we have to play the long game too.

You need a strategy to be faithful to God. An actual, detailed plan of how you intend to grow closer to God during this time. We often treat our relationship with God as though it is a bunch of random moments of God-encounters. If that is how you are following Jesus, then you’re not giving God your best. Play the long game, think several moves ahead. What decisions can you make today that will strengthen your position in a week? In a month? In a year?

The most important decision you can make is not just to follow Jesus, it is the decision to follow Him all the days of your life. And that is a decision that you need to make every day. You can’t accidentally follow Jesus, but through intentional, simple, day by day practice and discipline, you can build a lifetime of faithfulness to God.

Play the long game.