Dave Myers

As I write this, we are almost done, with college football’s bowl season for 2025/26. The championship game is just ahead, and so is the Super Bowl at the professional level. It’s a grind to get to a championship game for either level, and things can change drastically in a team’s season from beginning to end. As a fan, we all take a journey together with our preferred team(s) with this high stake football drama.

One of the favorite weeks of the year for any team is “bye week”. There’s no doubt that the players and coaches love playing the games, but there’s also something about getting a respite in the middle of the season and having a week off from playing. It’s a chance for players to rest their beaten bodies to recoup a bit and get healthy, but most coaching staffs don’t really take much of a break.

Normally, coaching staffs will take part of their bye-week to self-scout.

What’s that you ask?

In a normal week of the season, teams will put together a scouting report of the team they will

be playing, identifying their strengths and weaknesses. With those observations in mind, a coach will look for ways for their team to exploit the other teams’ weaknesses. If they have the right personnel, often exploiting these weaknesses will be a key to victory.

But, it can also be said that their own team will inevitably have strengths and weaknesses, and other teams will be watching tape of them to determine what those are. The other side will be trying to expose whatever weaknesses they found as well. It’s a cat and mouse game that coaches play to try to get the upper hand.

So, what is self scouting?

Taking the scouting report you would normally have on another team – looking at all the different position groups (running backs, receivers, linemen…) but instead of looking at the opposition, it’s done analyzing themselves.

It actually provides great information, so that you can understand what the other teams are likely to try to attack against you. And, because of this analysis, it provides you the opportunity to tweak and change what you are doing, so that your opposition doesn’t get the upper hand.

Well, what if we did this same thing as Believers in Christ – a spiritual self-analysis, trying to better understand the victories we have in our life through Christ, but also the areas of sin where we haven’t gained a victory yet? Would it be useful to actually identify areas of our lives where sin resides?

I would venture to say, ‘yes’.

Now, let me clarify before going any further. In and of ourselves, we have no way to overcome or defeat sin. That is only through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection on the cross where that occurs.

Secondly, when we are saved and accept Jesus as Lord of our lives, the Holy Spirit will reside in us and guide us throughout our lives.

What I am advocating for is not a typical beginning of the year reflection where I identify personal goals that I want to achieve for the year and through my own efforts, I’ll move forward in life, bettering my situation.

It is a spiritual recognition that every one of us is flawed and has sin in our lives. It is a recognition that these sins can only be taken away by the person of Jesus Christ, and it is a

recognition that we don’t have the power to do it ourselves, but only through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now, another aspect that is in play here, is that as Christians, we do have an opponent who would love to “seek, kill, and destroy us”.

And one last idea is that Jesus’ final words gave us a charge as Believers to go and spread His gospel, and we are to do that in our homes, our families, our neighborhoods, our state, our nation, and throughout the world.

As Believers in Christ, we are supposed to be “doers of the word”. Our enemy would love nothing better than for us to be crippled in our sins, to give up, to quit, to not engage in sharing the gospel, to rely on someone else to do it, or to become too busy to share it.

If our enemy could somehow disable us from our core mission as Believers, you’d better believe he would do it, knowing what your weaknesses and sins were.

So, how might this flesh itself out? If you recognize that you have a problem with substance abuse, stop frequenting establishments where it’s sold. What if you are prideful and boast frequently? Pray for the Holy Spirit to help you in that area and work at practicing humility. What if you take your anger out on others? Pray for the Holy Spirit to help you with this – ask for patience and self-control.

The list of sins that incapacitate Believers is too long to list here, but if we truly want God to use us this year in sharing the gospel of Christ, we should each ask God to reveal to us areas in our lives where we need forgiveness and healing. And as we seek God’s intervention in overcoming these sins, look for opportunities to advance the gospel, sharing what Jesus did for each and every person and perhaps share your own story of how Jesus intervened in your own life.

Take some time this week to do some self-scouting, asking God to reveal the areas of sin that you have in your life, and through the Holy Spirit, be able to overcome any upcoming battles you will inevitably face this next year within these areas.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 NIV