France is in the News

Exuberant Fans After French World Cup Victory (© France 3)

The Euphoria will be short lived. Other places will make the headlines. What will remain besides a trophy and a title?

We were crazy enough to try and go to Vieux Nice for ice cream after the semi-final win over Belgium. There was a lot of traffic for that hour of the night as we drove through Nice: everywhere people were cheering, honking horns and waving flags from their cars as they drove by. Then, as we got  to the town center, we found ourselves in a huge traffic jam and in front of us was an immense crowd of cheering, flag-waving fans and a lot of policemen directing traffic, away from our favorite ice cream shop.

We didn’t get our ice cream that night, but in thinking about all the joy, the excitement, the shouting and the flags, it reminded me of Psalm 20:5  “May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God”, and of Psalm 100: 1-3 “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God.”

These fans were praising a victorious football team, young men who had pulled off a feat few believed them to be capable of. I don’t think many of them (or many people in general today) have any concept of how amazing our `Creator is, how great is His love for us, and how Wonderful are the plans full of hope that He has in store for each one of us (Jeremiah 29:11) or we would all be praising Him in like manner.

May this World Cup Victory be a call to pray for this passionate people of France , that they would become passionate worshipers of the Most High God.  Please pray with us that the Holy Spirit would prepare hearts to receive His Good News and that He would anoint us, and all of His other witnesses here to proclaim it and embody it.