HELEN SANDERS
12-1-2025
WAITING IN THE DUGOUT

On any team, whether it is football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, or any other type of sport, there will be those sitting on the bench because they are not the first starters.

It does not mean that they have not prepared and worked out and trained just as much as the first starters. It just means that they have not been proven as players yet as those that are in the game. They support the team whether they are in the game or waiting in the dugout.

These bench sitters in the dugout must practice and do everything that the first starters have done to play in the game. Just because they are “waiting in the dugout” does not mean they aren’t in shape.

We must see our lives the same way. We may not be called to the fivefold leadership, including the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, or teacher, but we must be ready to serve even though we are still sitting on the bench, waiting.

How do we do that? Well, it does not mean you sit around your home watching television, playing on your phone, or just being spiritually lazy. It means that you are studying the word of God; staying in an attitude of servanthood; praying; looking for opportunities to serve; and being ready when God calls you. If we are found faithful, God promotes us.

There are many that were waiting in the dugout in the sports world that were called to “play in the game” because a first starter got injured, or other reasons. It is their opportunity to be used by the coach, and might even bring them advancement. They stay prepared, ready to obey the coach.

In spiritual things we must always wear the armor of God, and are always prepared to be called off the bench and into the battle. As servants of the Lord, we must remember Ephesians 6:5, “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.”

God looks for those that are faithful in the little things. Being found faithful by God brings promotion from the dugout and into the game.